I currently keep Brown Banded Bamboo Sharks, (Chiloscyllum punctatum) in a community tank.
However I have been trying to supplement their diet of frozen whitefish fillets with mussels to provide Iodine however due to finances I have had to switch to frozen mussels from Gamma Slice and they keep taking the mussel "chewing" it and then spitting it back out again.
This has only been happening since I've been feeding them on the cheaper mussels so is this something to do with the mussels or is this just the sharks being fussy eaters?
Also are there other cheap affordable (student) ways to supplement the diet to provide iodine?
Hi Lewis,
Are the brown banded bamboo sharks wild caught? Wild caught animals may not be used to eating mussels and may need time to adjust, though "chewing" on the food shows promise. Have they been acclimated in the community tank and grown accustomed to the whitefish fillets? Are these sharks adults or juveniles? If they are older and have been well-fed prior to this, they may need to grow hungrier before settling on the new type of feed. There is no clear cut way to switching food. I would try placing both types of food (whitefish and mussel) into the tank at the same time. Hope this helps.
Garfield
Hi Garfield, the tank is at my University and as far as I know they have been donated to us by an aquarium quite a few years ago and although I don't know the exact age I am certain that they are adults.
Either way, I do believe that I have managed to solve the situation by removing one part of the mussel which could be the kidney (mussel anatomy is not exactly my area) and they are now feeding well on whitefish and mussels, very messy when eating the mussels but still feeding nonetheless.
Thanks for the help anyway Garfield
Have you tried to feed it by cuttlefish? As long as I know the brownbanded bambooshark is having food preference to it or squids, apart of fish.
Could try that if I need to change their diet in the future Fahmi but the problem appears to have been solved now.
thanks anyway though
Do you have a constant-temperature system? If not, you may find that they lose a significant amount of their appetite during colder months, and in those cases can feed a little more sporadically.
Thank you Vincent, I have asked my lecturer who has managed the system prior to me and it is a thermo-regulatory system, but as it is the sharks are feeding perfectly fine now and it's now just the Moray that is still feeding sporadically
Bear with me here as I am very new to keeping large saltwater species and the largest I'd kept before this is a 13cm Synodontis catfish
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