Specialty Species Can Cause Special Problems

Frank G. Anderson

Listen to the following letter, sent in by a reader who admits doing something all of us have done at one time or another - gotten something we would have been better off without.

Dear Frank G. Anderson,

I have a male pet leopard shark that is 16 inches long and is living in a 75 gallon aquarium. The shark is doing very well but I do realize the tank is way too small for such a large animal. The problem is that I can't seem to get a public aquarium interested in taking my pet so I think I am stuck with my one and only option of building a huge tank for it. I had my floor checked and I know that the weight on the part of the house were the tank would go would not be any cause for fear of a ruined floor. So my question is could you please write an article on sharks? This is in orderto help discourage hobbyists from buying them because, not only are they sensitive animals, but they grow very fast and most of them get to large for a typical home aquarium and public aquariums don't always want the animal.

To show just how fast they grow I will show you this fact in my shark keeping I have gone through: When I got my shark on June 10th 1996 from the pet store for a great price of $130.00 it was 8 1/2 inches long. The store owner made sure that after I bought it and was getting my tank ready for it that it stayed in great health. He takes excellent care of his animals and has never sold me a sick fish *EVER* and his prices are great. On 6/6/97 today it is 16 inches long so there you go, and as of four months ago I started feeding it once every three to four days. It is still growing very quickly and doing well in my 75 gallon aquarium.

I do not want to see any other aquarists have to go through the frustration of not having a home for their pet shark and watching it after some time just die in a tank it can barely turn around in. Luckily, I am going to not get it a home but rather make it a home were it will get great care and were it can live out the rest of it's life and hopefully once I get a female specimen.

Yours truly,

This reader is being frank and honest. He got in over his head in at least one area (not knowing how large these so-called tank busters grow. Unfortunately, I would also fault the retailer somewhat for not quizzing this reader over what he has in the way of facilities, and not telling him that he will need a 500 gallon or larger aquarium some time in the future, if he wants to keep this fish. Leopard Sharks are attractive fish, and it is no wonder that an aquarist would want to own one. Rather, not so much an aquarist, as a home hobbyist who dabbles in aquariums. This is not to criticize the reader so much as it is to highlight a significant difference between an aquarist and a hobbyist. The former has some extensive knowledge and is likely to be able to deal with a wide range of aquarium-related challenges quickly and efficiently, whereas the latter is more likely lost in many cases and unsure of what to do. No problem. We are all like this and it is a learning process anyhow. But the retailer should have known that this fish would grow, and should have said something (did he?) to the buyer. At least ask him if he had a 200 gallon or larger aquarium for the shark as it grew larger. But instead, the guy may have just sold the shark and let the chips fall where they may. The fishkeeper might be better off taking the shark back to the retailer, but will he be able to get anything for it?

One other aspect of this situation is that tropical fish are still relatively free from government incursion as far as tight regulations are concerned, and the retailer and buyer are virtually free to kill off as many fish as they are able to, inadvertently most of the time, but still free to lose hundreds of thousands of fish due to lack of care, improper feeding, poor care and a wide variety of other factors that help keep the tropical fish industry so vibrant as far as breeding replenishment fish is concerned. I am not one who advocates regulation by any means, other than self-regulation and humane fish treatment by wholesalers, retailers, and customers - as well as those in-between (the shippers and handlers). With the current freedom we have to buy almost any fish we want and in whatever quantity we can afford, it is bound to happen that mistreatment occurs. But let's keep it to a minimum.

In the instance of the leopard shark cited above, for example, the retailer should have told the buyer that he will need a vary large tank, and should have cautioned him that it will grow quickly and may become a liability rather than an asset. Now what sane retailer is going to tell you this? Actually, any responsible one will say something like it. He or she may say something along the lines of, "You do know that this fish grows to over three feet, don't you? Are you equipped with a 500 gallon tank to handle the fish when he reaches adult size?" Or, "We recommend that a buyer for this fish be an advanced fishkeeper. Are you?" There are a lot of ways that a responsible retailer can still make a $130 sale without shouldering undue responsibilities on an unsuspecting client. But basically, they boil down to being humane, being responsible, and being honest.

Now on to the rest of this article, naming some fish besides the leopard shark our reader wrote in about which should not normally be kept by the average fishkeeper.

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