Black Banded Cat Shark

Facts about Black Banded Cat Shark. "Scientific name for Black Banded Cat Shark is Chiloscyllium punctatum". Black Banded Cat Shark is also known as the Banded Bamboo Shark. The Cart Shark fish belongs to the ark family Hemiscylliidae which is native to salty and fresh waters in the Indo-West Pacific from northern Australia to Japan. The Cart shark can be found be found in its natural habitat at latitudes of about 26 South and 34 North. In addition, the Black Banded Cat Shark exists deep into the waters at depths of about two hundred and seventy nine feet. The Black Banded Cat Shark is classified as Near Threatened (NT) on the IUCN Red List. The Black Banded Cat Shark is referred by the name due to the fact that the barbels at its mouth usually resemble the cat whiskers.

Features about Black Banded Cat Shark

The Black Banded Cat Shark, upon maturity, can grow up to lengths of about 48 inches (122 cm). The adult cat shark juveniles usually have a brownish to cream colored body with faint suggestions of broad, dark black bands or stripes. Most of the popular Cat Shark juveniles are distinctly pale and barred dark black with large, brown muted spots between the stripes and are noticeable especially when the fish increases in size. The Black Banded Cat Shark has concave posterior and a margined dorsal fin with less or no colorization with the adults. However, the juveniles have dark transverse bands with dark spots.

The Black Banded Cat Shark undergoes an oviparous type of reproduction with its minimum population doubling ranging of five to fourteen years. The Black Banded Cat Shark is a bottom dwelling shark which is commonly kept in public aquaria. However, the Black Banded Cat Shark can also be kept at home in a larger aquarium or a three hundred and sixty gallon aquarium (1363 liters) filled with sand as the substrate. The Black Banded Cat Shark’s back is prone to scratch by coarse substrates leading to infections, hence the sand substrate. Incase of infections, the fish requires to be treated using copper based prescriptions.

Diet of the Black Banded Cat Shark

The Black Banded Cat Shark are carnivores and should be fed 2-3 times a week, they eat scallop, squid, fresh shrimp and marine fish. The Black Banded Cat Shark should take some iodine supplements to prevent goiter disease. A couple of things to keep in mind, when you feed the Black Banded Cat Shark, make sure that the food is a bit size or the Black Banded Cat Shark will throw it back up and the other thing is sometimes juveniles are difficult to get them to eat so adding some flavor for easy eating.

Aquarium range of the Black Banded Cat Shark

The Black Banded Cat Shark should ideally be kept in temperature of the water, ranging from 72 to 78 degree Fahrenheit (22 to 25 cel), with the water pH levels between 8.1 and 8.4. and a specific gravity of 1.020 to 1.025 should be maintained.

Aquarium care of the Black Banded Cat Shark

Test the water when preparing your tank for your fish: You will need to purchase a liquid tester so that you can test for Nitrates and Ammonia. The strip-style test kits are unreliable and a waste of money. You should use a dechlorinating product to remove the harmful chlorine from the water. Test for nitrite, ammonia, and proper PH. The ammonia should always be 0, the nitrite should be 0, and the nitrate should preferably be below 20 ppm. If it's at or above 40 parts per million (ppm), you have too many fish or are not changing the water often enough. Cycling your tank is important, Follow the steps to cycle your tank. This establishes healthy bacterial and chemical levels.