Shark Won't Eat
- Thread starter Shark
- Start date
- Location
- Levittown
Sometimes it takes a week + for them to start eating and sometimes unfortunately they don't eat in my experience. I probably would skip the feeder mouse thing. Try cutting silversides in half or find very small ones and try to put it underneath him.
Reeftaker2013
Active Reefer
- Location
- Long Island
Pinched live guppy down let em smell the guts maybe he'll eat
Sharks don't belong in shoe boxes, give him to a professional with a huge pool and stop torturing the poor thing.
Another example of why people shouldn't keep or promote keeping sharks in home aquariums.
What a shame, hope you wise up before it's too late for the shark.
Another example of why people shouldn't keep or promote keeping sharks in home aquariums.
What a shame, hope you wise up before it's too late for the shark.
Do you even know what kind of shark has? This is a pretty important piece of information.
There are lots of sharks that make great pets. Most available sharks need a large tank but nothing larger then what tangs, groupers or lookdowns should be kept in. Many sharks also adapt to captivity in terms of eating then fish such as mandarins and sweetlips. Shark feed in captivity without issue with the exception of new borns. That is with many species. Captive breed shark are also common. Sharks wouldn't breed if they
keeping a tang in a 34 gallon isn't much better then a shark in a shoe box.
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I don't think sharks should be in aquariums, unless the tank itself is of commercial size.
Mandarins and Sweetlips don't belong in aquariums either IMO.
So, the middle of the road recommended sized tank for a tang is what 125-180? Your saying that it would be fine if I keep a shark in my 180? Sounds ridiculous.
Little more info on this would be nice. Like the species and what size tank it is in. Could just be another fish suffering from the ego of its owner.
180 is reaching that iffy point, mostly do to dimensions of a standard aquarium. Many people do think it is ok to keep some sharks in a 180 gallon. I know someone who was breeding sharks in a 180. If you go with something about 250-300 gallon your options open up more. A 125 is small for many full grown tangs. 180 is also a little tight. Tangs are very active fish.
If you want to get a shark for your 180 Bali catsharks are a good choice and not that rare. They can live a happy life in a 180. just don't clutter the tank with rocks.
There are hundreds of shark species. The majority of them are nothing like Jaws.
If you want to get a shark for your 180 Bali catsharks are a good choice and not that rare. They can live a happy life in a 180. just don't clutter the tank with rocks.
There are hundreds of shark species. The majority of them are nothing like Jaws.
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- Location
- Queens, NY
I've have no experience with sharks, but I do have experience with getting fish to eat.
Fist thing I would do is to isolated into its own tank so that you can control its environment and do controlled experiments, or make sure there aren't other fish in the tank with it.
1. Possible nocturnal feeder.
2. Possibly too nervous to feed in the open, as they need to be defensive once born, otherwise they get eaten themselves.
3. Possibly need to stimulate their attack response. Prey size, movement, etc.
4. Last possibility, and I think this is the likely one, is that its still feeding off it's yolk sac reserve.
The first 3 can be identified easily. Once you have it in a tank, fill half of it with cover and leave the other half open, so it can decide which half he likes better. Next you need to fill with live food, as I think it won't recognize frozen. Try live ghost shrimps and pods you can catch at any of the marine docks along Long Island. Bring a net and just scoop the seaweed mass and catch anything you can. There will be dozens of species of crustacians in there, bring them all back. I would keep the seaweed too as the "cover" mentioned earlier.
Also see if you can get live bait, spearing and worms from any bait and tackle shop. There's a few out here in Queens. Also get live brine shrimp and black worms from Petland.
Next keep the tank exposed to the window so it has a day/night cycle.
Once you're set up, watch and see. I'd use a 5 or 10 gallon QT tank with whatever filter you have. Now the shark will have a variety of live foods to choose from. Don't forget to feed your bait, maybe a few pellets, for the live fish.
Hopefully something will go missing one night. Just keep track of what's in the tank.
Once you've identified what it goes for, you have to start feeding it freshly killed versions of it, then finally frozen.
So if it goes for a ghost shrimp, take out off the shrimps and keep them separate, then take a live shrimp out, spear it on a kabob stick and wave it at the shark. Once it goes for it, you can start using frozen shrimps.
After its trained, it can go back in the main tank.
Personally, I think live food will work, you just have to find the right size. Don't get another shark, they hatch individually and are solo I think. Otherwise shark eggs would be clustered in packs, not scattered around.
In breeding cardinals, the newly hatched fry will ONLY go for moving food that will fit in their mouth. It has to be tricked into thinking the food was alive and I did that by using a pipet and squirting Cyclopeze /live baby brine shrimp mixture into the outflow of the pump.
Fist thing I would do is to isolated into its own tank so that you can control its environment and do controlled experiments, or make sure there aren't other fish in the tank with it.
1. Possible nocturnal feeder.
2. Possibly too nervous to feed in the open, as they need to be defensive once born, otherwise they get eaten themselves.
3. Possibly need to stimulate their attack response. Prey size, movement, etc.
4. Last possibility, and I think this is the likely one, is that its still feeding off it's yolk sac reserve.
The first 3 can be identified easily. Once you have it in a tank, fill half of it with cover and leave the other half open, so it can decide which half he likes better. Next you need to fill with live food, as I think it won't recognize frozen. Try live ghost shrimps and pods you can catch at any of the marine docks along Long Island. Bring a net and just scoop the seaweed mass and catch anything you can. There will be dozens of species of crustacians in there, bring them all back. I would keep the seaweed too as the "cover" mentioned earlier.
Also see if you can get live bait, spearing and worms from any bait and tackle shop. There's a few out here in Queens. Also get live brine shrimp and black worms from Petland.
Next keep the tank exposed to the window so it has a day/night cycle.
Once you're set up, watch and see. I'd use a 5 or 10 gallon QT tank with whatever filter you have. Now the shark will have a variety of live foods to choose from. Don't forget to feed your bait, maybe a few pellets, for the live fish.
Hopefully something will go missing one night. Just keep track of what's in the tank.
Once you've identified what it goes for, you have to start feeding it freshly killed versions of it, then finally frozen.
So if it goes for a ghost shrimp, take out off the shrimps and keep them separate, then take a live shrimp out, spear it on a kabob stick and wave it at the shark. Once it goes for it, you can start using frozen shrimps.
After its trained, it can go back in the main tank.
Personally, I think live food will work, you just have to find the right size. Don't get another shark, they hatch individually and are solo I think. Otherwise shark eggs would be clustered in packs, not scattered around.
In breeding cardinals, the newly hatched fry will ONLY go for moving food that will fit in their mouth. It has to be tricked into thinking the food was alive and I did that by using a pipet and squirting Cyclopeze /live baby brine shrimp mixture into the outflow of the pump.
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- Location
- Queens, NY
did you get any live food? I was at Jones Beach and there are tons of little killifish fry swimming around Zack's bay, easy to catch with a hand net if you drop it straight down on them. They are like little guppies and I'm sure, just the right size for your shark, from 1/4" to 1/2" in size.
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