White Tip Cat Shark

[MMM33732]

I realize these probably aren't considered reef fish or reef safe for that matter. However, Ive had a pair in my reef tank for over 6 months now and they do great. They are originally brackish, but I acclimated them to 1.025 over the course of a month before adding them. Anyways, I've read that they grow to a max size of 14". So far they have been doing excellent. They add a nice aggressive look to the reef tank, and thus far haven't even come close to bothering any corals or fish or inverts. Now I'm not sure how that will change as they grow lager, but right now they are 5" and 4". They've been doing a great job cleaning up any uneaten food that sinks to the bottom. Both are getting pretty fat. Is there any long term danger of keeping them in a reef (assuming tank is large enough and they continue to leave corals alone)? Heres the 4" one:

[KUDA]

They'll eat any fish they can fit in their mouths.

[thor32766]

that is awesome!!!

[Chevrontang25]

That is really cool idea. What size tank are they in?

[MMM33732]

Currently a 55, soon to be a 125 or larger. Not too sure yet.

[yoboyjdizz]

I would do a much larger tank then a 125, you want to give them room to turn around. Awesome fish good luck to you!

[AMD30]

congrats! i have been wanting to do this for a while and have heard rumors of it being done. i am planning a large tank and want like 5 of these to school. any more details how you acclimated them to sw?

[MMM33732]

I had them in a 5g nano when I first purchased them. They were originally in freshwater for about a month. I started to add about 1/8th cup of salt every 2 days until it got to 1.011. I left it at that salinity for about a week to keep get them used to it. After that week or so, I continued adding 1/8th cup of salt until it hit 1.0245, where my main tank is at. After it got to that salinity, I left them in there with no adjustments for about a month. Once I felt they were comfortably and used to the higher salt level, I added them to my main tank with a simple drip acclimation for an hour. The entire time they were in the nano, temps were from 72-80 degrees. My main tank is 78-80. They seemed to adjust to the new temperature just fine. I'm sure they could be acclimated much faster (I once did a molly in 2 days) with no adverse effects, but I tried to stretch it out just as a little room for safety.


Any other info on how they behave when they are larger as far as eating anything in the reef environment?

[AMD30]

so did you wait a while for them to grow? or is it possible to do the same to very small juveniles? do they do well in higher flow in ur sw reef/?

[lendz]

That is very common here in the Philippines. It grows big. And it's not really a real shark,but a catfish.

[AMD30]

i think the catfish has venomous spines also, correct? i believe the latin name is Arius seemani or Arius Jordani? ive heard them called a common name such as Silver tipped shark.

[lendz]

They call that the hammerhead shark here. Hehe. When I was a kid,I thought it was a shark too. But made some research and found out that it was a catfish. I saw big specimens of this fish. And I tell you,it'll grow more than 14inches. And has a big appetite.

[adddo]

More pics!

[JHemdal]

If they are Arius jordani (commonly imported from South and Central America) they can reach 1 meter, if they are Arius felis (the kind most often sold by Florida fish farms) they can reach about 3/4 of a meter. There are smaller species from other regions, but I've not seen those in the pet trade.

Do not disregard the toxic nature of their dorsal and pectoral spines. Many years ago, I had an aquarist get stung by one. He went into shock and we had to call EMS - as i recall, he spent at least one night in the hospital.


Jay Hemdal

[MMM33732]

Hmm, so it sounds like they would be best not to be kept in a large reef, but rather an aggressive tank. On that though, would they eat smaller fish (minimum of 2"), or would the fish be fine if the cat-sharks were fed good? They seem to only eat off the bottom and the surface of the water, I never really see them eating anything thats floating or suspended in the main water body, regardless of its size, such as were fish swim. There are plenty of small nassarius snails on the bottom that could fit in their mouths that they leave alone. They're pretty humble for as fast and crazy as they are. My yellow tang beats them up once and a great while when they try to eat his nori.

I let them get to about 3.5" before I started acclimating them from fresh to brackish and brackish to salt.

I realize they are truly catfish, but they look and act like sharks in my opinion and they are even called sharks, so just as good to me