Shark Tank Project

[dude1974]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this site and very glad I found it!

First I just want to ask a question that has been bugging me for years. I was in London and the London Zoo about 13 years ago and saw sharks there that i have not been able to find anywhere else, on the internet or in real life. I would guess the sharks were from around a foot long up to about maybe a foot and a half. Nothing amazing about this, but they had basically the exact features of a Great White! I haven no idea what they were called, the lable on the tank said "Shark" and nothing else, that I can remember. Does anyone know what they could have been? I haven't been able to find anything like them, and as of yet nothing that looks simular for such a small fish.

Anyway, I have a basement that I wish to rebuild and have a huge tank with the mentioned Sharks, if I can find 'em. There is a crawl-space, with concrete floor, at about 3 feet above the floor of the actual room. The crawl-space is about 20 feet wide, 20 feet deep and 4 feet high. I could turn the whole thing into a tank if necessary, but that might be a bit too big I recon. Only the front of the tank would be visible, but it would be accessable from the far end and I'm thinking cleaning the actual tank could be a problem. It all seems a bit too ambisious I guess, but I think it would be awesome if it was do-able, since I have the opurtunity.

I really want to get as much knowlegde about the fish and how it should be treated and maintained before I go ahead.

Any suggestions, comments, positive or negative views are very sought after..

Thanks guys and I hope for some responses

 

[Boogiechillin]

First, no shark with a morphology similar to a great white stays that small as an adult. The absolute smallest sharks that can be kept in captivity, the bamboo/cat sharks, typically reach 3'. I suspect what you saw were juveniles of a species that gets much larger. Many of the requiem sharks, like tigers, lemons, etc, will breed in captivity, and the zoo may have just separated the juveniles to prevent them from being eaten.

Even with as big of a tank as you are considering, you're still fairly limited in terms of shark options. You could certainly keep many of the bamboo/cat sharks and similar species, like the epaulette shark. These are smaller (3'-4') sharks that are fairly sedentary as they have evolved to survive in tidepools, making them the best bets for sharks to keep in the average aquarium. If you use the entire space, you could also keep bigger sharks, like the wobbegon, shovelnose, or possibly a nurse shark.

If you want more of a free-swimming shark AND you use the entire space available, you could look into a small group of leopard sharks (which require cooler water) or a single black-tip reef shark. I would personally suggest skipping on these, but it might be do-able. Ideally, I would go with a mix of the bamboo sharks and put other predators in the tank as well, like stingrays, bigger moray eels, etc.

 

[dude1974]

Thanks alot for that info. As I suspected there were no shark species that were that size, fully grown, and with those features. I'm pretty sure they were juveniles of a species that grow alot bigger. I've basically given up on the idea of getting a tank with a couple great white look-alikes as they dont exist.

I'm thinking if I use all the space I have available, even a 2-3 feet bamboo or cat shark will perhaps not have the room to roam it should have. If it had been about a foot then I'd be comfortable with it. Three times that size and 20x20 feet suddenly becomes alot smaller. I don't know, I'll look around and see what I decide. Even if the shark don't look like a great white or a reef shark, it's still something I want to try and make happen.

Atleast now I know I have competent people to ask for advice

Thanks again for the reply

 

[Boogiechillin]

The nice thing about the bamboo sharks is that they really don't roam a whole lot. They move around a bit while hunting for food, but otherwise they stay still most of the time. (If you've ever seen a nurse shark, the behavior is pretty similar...they chill on the bottom under a favorite ledge or cave and only get active when food hits the water). 20'x20' is an empire for a bamboo shark when you consider that they can be raised to healthy adulthood even in big conventional aquariums (eg, 250-300+ g).