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

[krj-1168]

sorry to step into the middle of this so late in the game, but im just added my 2 brown banded bamboo sharks to my 400gal tank and have only added three tangs for clean up reasons. does any one have a good idea of any rays i could add to this tank? thanks

With all these fishes - your eventually going to need a larger tank.
A 400 gallon tank isn't large enough for a single adult Brown-banded Bamboo in, much less 2 Bamboos, with rays and other fishes. But there are some rays that could be kept in a 400 gallon tank for life. One of these - the Cortez Round Stingray comes to mind.

 

[emortal]

i appreciate the responce, ive ordered the sharks and rays book online but after reading your veiws on it wonder if i should even take any of it as guidance. at what rate in size that is foes it take for broen banded bamboos to grow, mine are approx 14" now and so told by my lfs that they are approx 6 months old? how long does it take these guys to grow to adults as i dont trust anything ive read online fater seeing your experince coming out in some of the threads ive read. thanks again.rick.

 

[Zoodiver]

Six months, probably not. I'd guess a year depending on food, water temp and genetics.
At a few years, most of my bamboos have been over 3 feet.

 

[emortal]

at what size should i be ready or have to put them into a bigger tank? i plane on keeping both of them for life so concidering i have two of them how big of a tank would you suggest?

 

[Zoodiver]

I'd go as big as you can afford. Two adult bamboos sharks make a lot of bioload for a typcial home tank. 4 feet by 6 or 8 feet would be a start for the foot print.

 

[emortal]

its already 8' x 36"x25" would one foot wider really make that much more of a difference? this second question is for zoodiver, what kind of shark is that in your profile picture, looks like it has bands but maby ther just shadows.

 

[krj-1168]

Well - from the size of the tank you've given(8'x3'x 2'), as well as the size of the sharks(14"). I would say that you may have another year that you could keep them in that tank. They should be close to 2 ft long at that point.

As for what size of pond/tank will they require as adults. The minimum size pond I would recommend for 2 Brown -banded Bamboos is 9 ft(64 sq.ft.) in diameter, or oval shape 12'L x 6'W with a volume of about 950 gallons. Naturally a larger pond would be preferred.

 

[moore40]

so, small sharks - couple hundred gallons per foot of lenght, and free swimmers a couple thousand?

 

[krj-1168]

Well - you really can't the set rule of so many gallons per foot for benthic csharks or swimming sharks. One of the reasons is because - sharks aren't as simple as Benthic(bottom dwelling) shark or Swimming Shark. The seperation of various types of sharks is alot more complex than that.

So saying a Bamboo shark may need about 250-300 gallons per foot maybe fairly accurate - however that doesn't mean that all benthic species use the same figure. For Example using these figures on an adult Nurse Shark - would give an aquarist the idea that they may only need a 3,000-4,000 gallon pond for a Nurse shark for life. But the truth is the minimum tank/pond size for an Adult Nurse the figure should be at least 6 times that figure.

 

[Hinge Thunder]

Thanks for the info guys! I'm also considering getting back into shark keeping. About a decade ago I kept two small Nurse Sharks (18 inches long at purchase, 22 inches long 3 years later) in a 2000 gallon tank. I had to move 3 years after and sold them both to a guy with a 10,000 gallon built-in tank. I'm thinking of getting an Epaulette shark in the next couple of months.