Shark okay for my tank?

ohio reefer · Feb 3, 2014

I'm moving and will be setting up a new predator tank. I am going to out my porcupine puffer, lion fish, and snowflake eel, and wanted to get a bamboo or banded cat shark. The tank is a custom made 96 inch long, 30 inch wide, and 26 inch tall 320 gallon tank. I see that 180 is the recommended size on most sites but this seems much to small. Would this tank be sufficient? Thanks.

EW_Fish · Feb 3, 2014

Buddy of mine had one in a 350g. It was a corner tank

Reefing Madness · Feb 3, 2014

Yup, I often thought about putting a Marble Cat in my 240g tank (8 foot), until I threw in corals.

fishheadz · Feb 4, 2014

Sure, plenty of size there. How is your substrate? Sharks like it soft and smooth!

ohio reefer · Feb 4, 2014

fishheadz said:
Sure, plenty of size there. How is your substrate? Sharks like it soft and smooth!

I'm going to get the smoothest I can find. Would a Cortez Ray be okay for this tank?

fishheadz · Feb 5, 2014

Sure, .... your just going to have future grow-out issues with these types of animals, but enjoy for awhile.

ohio reefer · Feb 5, 2014

Would my tank be able to house (happily) a coral cat shark? I see they max out around 26-27 inches which would give it plenty of room to be able to turn around in my tank even full grown.

Reefing Madness · Feb 5, 2014

Yea, they dont't do much anyways. I belive your ok with that shark.

reeffirstaid · Feb 6, 2014

I don't really advocate any species of sharks for home aquariums. They are out there, and bamboo sharks and a few others are often kept in private tanks. Sharks are a very distinct fish species, with very distinct requirements. It's always best to house species you are confident you can keep, for the entirety of their lives, as LFS's, public aquariums, etc - are often shy about taking fish from private tanks.

ohio reefer · Feb 9, 2014

Would this sand be okay for the shark? "CaribSea Aragonite Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand"
It's 26$ for 40lbs at petsmart so it's the best price I could find. And I'm going with a coral cat shark. Mainly due to the fact that it stays relatively small (24-27 inches) and I want to house the shark for life.

ohio reefer · Feb 11, 2014

Could I keep the shark In a 55 gallon for about 2-3 weeks after hatch? Is hate to throw it in the big tank before I can make sure it's feeding. Or would it be better to get a already hatched shark to avoid the possible starvation?

Reefing Madness · Feb 11, 2014

Yea, your good doing it that way. Really not a bad idea also.

ohio reefer · Feb 12, 2014

I'm thinking about going with a 225 gallon instead of the 320. Still the same footprint. 96x30 but instead of 26 tall it's 19 tall. Saves me about 100 gallons of water which makes the filtration much cheaper and easier to manage. Would the shark need the extra 7 inches of height? from what I've seen they're mainly bottom dwellers.

Reefing Madness · Feb 12, 2014

NA, your good with those dimensions.

ohio reefer · Feb 17, 2014

After a lot of thinking I've decided against getting a shark for now. I got to see a tank with the exact same dimensions the other day and can't see a shark being truly happy in it for life. The stock list I'm looking at is
Lion fish(already have)
Porcupine puffer (already have)
Snowflake eel(already have)
And I'm planning on adding a naso tang and possibly a blue hippo.