Physical description: 

• Body length at about 40 inches/maximum length 105cm 
• Slender body with elongated tail  
• Dorsal fins are of equal size 
• Mouth is in front the eyes and it has spiracles bothbelow and behind them.  
• Young sharks, like the one shown here, are bandedbeautifully. Adults are light brown and their banding seems to fade asthey get older. 

Bamboo shark courtesy of www.exotictropicals.com

General information: 

Thesesharks live around coral reefs and tidepools. Interestingly, it can surviveout of water for up to 12 hours.  The cat shark family contains manyspecies, usually distinguished by their different markings of stripes,bars, etc.  Interestingly enough, the best known of the cat sharkfamily is the dogfishes (which form a part of the catshark family). Onthe internet, brownbanded bamboo cat sharks are for sale, and it is clearthat some people might attempt to keep them in their own aquariums. Bamboosharks are egg-layers, with the eggs enclosed in elongatedflattened egg-cases.  In captivity, hatching can take up to fourmonths. 

Bamboo shark egg case 
courtesy of Anchofish

Special anatomical, physiological 
or behavioral adaptations:

These sharks are not endangered at the moment.They tend to stay inshore near coral reefs and tidepools; however, theyhave fallen prey to fisheries in India and Thailand. 

Also interesting is the fact that the gills ofthis shark are sometimes infested with the larva of isopods which is utilizedas food. (The spiracles may be an adaptation for bottom dwelling whichhelps keep the sand out of the gills as the shark feeds).

These cat sharks have small "whiskers" which arecalled barbels.  These are sensory organs which hang from each nostril.

For more information, you can go to:
http://www.comptons.com/encyclopedia/
ARTICLES/0000/00169984_A.html

Though they are sharks, they are harmless to people,but if kept in a tank, smaller fish...BEWARE!
 
 

 

Older cat shark at Fort Worth Zoo

"Chunky" (juvenile cat shark) from http://www.petoftheday.com

Comments about the banded cat shark at the FortWorth Zoo:

The Fort Worth Zoo has one male brownbanded catshark which they received as a donation on February 28, 1994. Accordingto the zoo keepers, these sharks tend to breed fairly well, but the zoodiscourages the public from keeping sharks in a home aquarium. If you lookclosely at the picture above, you can see the faded stripes of what oncewas a beautifully banded cat shark. 
 
 

Personal Observations: 

When I first saw the banded cat shark at the zoo,I had a hard time understanding why they called it that.  But, nowafter seeing the young cat sharks and the beautiful markings, I understandits name. 
Also note that the males have claspers that arelocated under the anal fins and as they grow older the claspers becomemore pronounced. The females do not have these, so distinguishing a malefrom a female is easy! 
 

Source Materials and Related Links:

 A good place to look for other zoo pages is NetVet's Listof Zoo Home Pages.

One book source is entitled: Fish, by Maurice and Robert Burton,Octopus Books Limited, published in 1975.

Here are several related on-line sources sharks: 

• The Shark Lab
• FishbaseSpecies Account:

http://www.Fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Chiloscyllium&speciesname=punctatum
• www.livingreefimages.com
• SharkFoundation:  Chiloscyllium punctatum species account

http://www.shark.ch/cgi-bin/Sharks/spec_conv.pl?E+Chiloscyllium.punctatum
• SaltAquarium: Banded Bamboo Shark

http://saltaquarium.about.com/pets/saltaquarium/library/blank/blpick022699bambshrk.htm
• http://www.exotictropicals.com/encyclo/marinesharks_rays/bamboo.htm
• http://www.anchofish.com/sharks/shark_eggs.htm

Page author: CallieMatthews 

Send E-mail to calliem@swbell.net

 or to:   mac@whozoo.org