fresh water sharks/rays

wally89

now im not talking about them bala sharks. im talking about actually sharks. like the banded cat shark. which some people have converted to fresh water. are there any other sharks? is there a place to by them. also if you know of any rays. thanks

iamntbatman

I've never heard of any true freshwater sharks, but there are freshwater rays. However, all of them get huge. Even the supposed "teacup rays" are just juveniles. You'll need hundreds of gallons minimum to house one.

tophat665

The only true freshwater sharks that I know of are in Lake Nicaragua. They're an isolated population of Bull Sharks that have adapted to fresh water. That said, Great Whites have been caught as far up the Mississippi as Arkron Ohio, so the big marine sharks can handle fresh water for quite some time. I have never, however, heard of a shark that is both small enough for any feasible home aquarium (under 5000 gallons) and able to adapt to freshwater on a long term basis (though it wouldn't surprise me to hear of smaller species that could handle estuarine brackish conditions indefinitely).

There are several species of freshwater rays, but that's been covered already.

okiemavis

I assume you're speaking of the video that's been floating around online of a shark living with mollies and Goldfish?

It's pretty much agreed that it's cruelty. Its life is going to be short and painful. Definitely not OK. These fish simply do not have the ability to osmoregulate like that. Saltwater fish are not designed to take up salt from the water the way freshwater fish do. The result is their blood has a much lower salt content than any animal needs for survival. While there are some fish that can survive in a range of salinity (called euryhaline), this shark is not one of them.

It would have been a much smarter idea for this jerk to adapt his mollies to saltwater, as mollies are euryhaline.

Little-Fizz

Unless you've done serious homework about this, I wouldn't even think about it if I were you. This could cost serious money and go seriously bad and quickly.

The shark isn't about to happen, but the rays on the other hand, thats possible. My personal favorite is the motoro stingray, I've looked into them a lot, I really want one but funds won't allow for a 90 plus gallon tank and the extra hundred bucks the string ray would cost.

They are super cool, and really fun to watch. And if your serious about it, then go for it. The motoro rays are supposedly the easiest freshwater ray to take care of.