What species of shark can be kept in a home aquarium?

[krj-1168]

A 180 gallon - may work for juvenile Bamboos, eppies or Coral Catsharks - but not for their entire lives. What size tank/pond you will need to keep any shark for it's entire life depends on the species you choose.

For example - Coral cats, or a small eppie or Bamboo (30" or less) would need a tank of at 480 gallons.

Larger species of bamboos, eppies & Horns (which are at least 3' long) need a tank or pond over 1,000 gallons.

The smallest swimming sharks available to private aquarists - tend to be Smoothhounds which are about 3-4', and require a pond of at least 4,000 gallons to keep for life.

The smallest requiem sharks tend to be about 3.5-5' long, and require a pond of at least 14,000-15,000 gallons.

As for the Nurse Shark - to keep one for life - plan on pond of at least 20,000+ gallons.

A Whale Shark - think at least a couple million gallons.

For those whom are relatively new to keeping sharks - it's best to stick with the Bamboos, eppies, & coral catsharks.

 

[DaxD]

Everybody has been great and even the sarcastic. Thanks for the info. and I will do research on them. Thanks again.

 

[kdrun76]

Spiny dog fish can be reared in 5000 gallon tanks.

 

[Windsorguy77]

Black tip reef shark. A LFS has installed a couple of tanks in this area with these in them.

 

[Windsorguy77]

A 180 gallon - may work for juvenile Bamboos, eppies or Coral Catsharks - but not for their entire lives. What size tank/pond you will need to keep any shark for it's entire life depends on the species you choose.

For example - Coral cats, or a small eppie or Bamboo (30" or less) would need a tank of at 480 gallons.

Larger species of bamboos, eppies & Horns (which are at least 3' long) need a tank or pond over 1,000 gallons.

The smallest swimming sharks available to private aquarists - tend to be Smoothhounds which are about 3-4', and require a pond of at least 4,000 gallons to keep for life.

The smallest requiem sharks tend to be about 3.5-5' long, and require a pond of at least 14,000-15,000 gallons.

As for the Nurse Shark - to keep one for life - plan on pond of at least 20,000+ gallons.

A Whale Shark - think at least a couple million gallons.

For those whom are relatively new to keeping sharks - it's best to stick with the Bamboos, eppies, & coral catsharks.

Something to consider is if you can get your hands on a custom round tank it makes all the difference. Big Al's here has a tank that's about 8' in circumference. They say the reef shark can survive it's life there because it is round and they can continually swim.

 

[Zoodiver]

Big Al's is slowly killing those blacktips. 8' round is a death sentence to something that will be 6' long as an adult. Too small a tank for a shark leads to live issues and kidney failure. Cause of death become 'brown blood disease' - more commonly known as blood poisoning. They stop filtering the blood, and die from it.

 

[krj-1168]

Well - as usually Matt on the money.

While Round tanks are much better for sharks than rectanglar tanks - I won't make much difference if the tank is too small. To keep a blacktip reef for life - you need a tank that's at least 30 ft in diameter, not 8-15 ft.

As for what sharks can be kept in a home aquarium. The response should be just how big of aquarium can you afford? Because that will dictate what species of sharks you can keep.

I.e. If you can only afford a tank/aquarium of 400-500 gallons - then your going to be looking at small catsharks, or small species of Bamboos & eppies. If you can afford a tank/aquarium/pond of up to 2,000 gallons - then you can move up to the larger eppies & bamboos, Horns, and small wobbegongs. If you can afford a tank/aquarium/pond of 5,000 gallons - then we're talking small Smoothounds.
And if you truely want to get into the big leagues - a 15,000-25,000 gallon (the size of an inground swimming pool) tank/lagoon would allow you to keep small requiem sharks - like sharpnoses & bonnetheads or even a Nurse Shark. At 25,000-40,000 gallons - you could keep medium sized requiem sharks like the Blacktip Reef or a Whitetip Reef Shark. And for those private aquarists with truely deep pockets, think an aquarium the size of small public aquarium (100,000 gallons +) - which you could keep large requiem sharks in such as the Sandbar (Brown) Shark, or even a Lemon Shark.

 

[krj-1168]

So it all depends on what you budget is for your home aquarium or lagoon.

But basically for those whom are new to keeping sharks - stick with the small easy to keep species of Bamboos , Eppies or Catsharks

 

[DUTCHTHUGLIFE]

for now i am gonna keep it with a bamboo shark and blue spotted lagoon ray they should arive next week they will be joining a lionfish and nemo who is still alive bet the shark will get it in my 180 gallon tank but gonna start on a bigger 1 soon

do got a oval pool of 5.5 metre long 3.5 metre witdh 1.2 metre high
if i would turn this into a saltwater lagoon
What sharks and other stock would u put in it?

 

[krj-1168]

For a 4,600-5,000 gallon oval pond - 18 ft(5.5m) long x 11.5 ft (3.5m) wide and 3.9 ft (1.2m) deep - you could easily keep almost any of the small benthic sharks for life - bamboos, eppies, coral cats, Horns(Port Jackson's) Small wobbies, or blind sharks.

As for swimming sharks - you would still be limited to small smoothhound sharks for life.

Anything else would eventually out grow the pond.