# Here are some pics of a 4000G shark tank...



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Just incase any of you are interested, here is a few pics of the tank I have been pouring my blood sweat and tears into for the past few months. Consider the inhabitants when you see the aquascaping! 

I will get some better pics in the near future!

http://members.shaw.ca/jusfourn/Shark.htm


----------



## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Pretty cool! I love looking at shark tanks! What else is planned for it?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Not much else is planned immediately. The owner of the tank really wants the sharks to grow big, and keeping nitrates down in a shark system is always a challenge. So for now it will stay pretty clean.

In the tank other then the 3 black tips is a Remora, a Pather Grouper, a Bluelined grouper, a Zebra Moray, 3 red squirel fish, 2 Racoon buterflys, 1 Harlequin Tuskfish, and give or take 20 orange striped cardinals, 30 monos and 60 green chromis.


----------



## able_ranui (Feb 26, 2004)

How big are the sharks? They will grow to be how big? What are the dimensions of the tank? Pretty neat to see.


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Able,

THe sharks are roughly 2', they should get double that no problem. The internal dimentions are something like 16'x7'x5'. I forget the exact inches.


----------



## able_ranui (Feb 26, 2004)

Will all three sharks be able to stay in there at their mature size? 4000 gallons is a lot, but the dimensions don't sound that big when your talking 4 foot fish.


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Michaels, the only author to put together a decent book on Sharks & rays, would cosider the size of the tank to be over the minimum for the fish. He reccomends a 2450G system, so this is a bit larger. If all goes well, we should be looking at a 15,000G +/- in the next few years. Consider the costs involved. These size tanks get real expensive, real fast.


----------



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

That's quite a tank Justin. Do you work for the Vancouver Aquarium or is this a private individual's pet project? I can't imagine having a place to house a tank that size!


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

It's in a private residence, in the basement of course.


----------



## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

Black-tip reef sharks are awesome! They stay quite small, and aren't aggressive..It would be cool to see a ray in there.. :wink:


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

It would be cool to see a Ray in there, as well as a large Moray eel. I have not decided weather or not I want to go swimming in thier with either of those occupant however. 

The ray I would worry about stepping on when I am trotting around. It's not uncommon to put your foot down unexpectedly or push against the ground when working in there and it's not always possible to check for the Ray before you put your foot/hand down.

And large Morays well they are dumb as bricks and I worry about one of them doing some serious damage with the razors they call teeth. At work we have a Giant Moray that must be over 48" and has tried to bite me before, and I assure you is capable of killing small sharks.


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Interesting set of photos, certainly wouldn't want to swim in the tank if a ray was buried somewhere. Of course, you guys could remove the stinger.


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Not only would it be intensely painful for the Ray, it would just grow back.


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

I actually remember at some park where they mentioned they had the stingers on the rays removed"Just in case". It was a little feeding station with juvie stingrays.

Or perhaps this is one of those bad practices?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Yes it's a bad practice. :roll:


----------



## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

Say, what's your electricity bill each month ?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

To be honest with you, this tank uses less power then your average 6' reef tank. So it's a little, but not much. I am sure the hot tub and pool consume exponential amounts more.


----------



## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

well good job, what are your future plans with this tank? will there be aquascaping involved?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

The tank was beautifully aquascaped. I spent roughly 8 hours on it. It took the sharks hunting for a fish that hid in the rocks about 10 minutes to destroy most of it. There is no point in aquascaping anymore.


----------



## hubbahubbahehe (Mar 29, 2004)

Hi, Justin, I'm sorry to hear about what happened...8 hours is a long time to get erased by them sharks. So are the rest of the fish there as sharkfood?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Well any other fish in the tank is potential prey. However the owner didn't want the tank to look to empty, he wanted fish in other shapes and colors to make the aquarium more entertaining. They get eaten continuously. :|


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Lol. That doesn't happen in public aquariums does it? They keep plenty of lil suckers in with the skarks. Prolly depends what kind though.


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Your kidding right?


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Nope. I've actually seen shark tanks with fish swimming with them. Perhaps they are well fed enough not to bother with the fish.


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

I have watched just stuffed and well fed Black tips rip apart 24" Tangs within seconds of them being put into the display, at a public aquarium.

There are tons of fish to see in there, and in most displays. That doesn't mean they won't be eaten. I am willing to bet 90%+ of fish being put into displays containing Black Tips will be eaten. 

Ask anyone that has any amount of experience in dealing with Black tips and I promise they will tell you the same. They are lean mean killing machines. They will go from picking up half inch pieces of thawed krill from the gravel to shredding a fish 30% their size, after being well stuffed that day with squid, trout or anything they think they can stuff into their stomach. They will even take a bite out of a fish if the moment is right, and not be able to finish it off.


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Since they catch them from the wild, wouldn't that be a big waste then?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

I wouldn't say it's a waste. Would any fish taken from the wild that is destined to be eaten a waste, weather it be for your consumption or a sharks?

Wouldn't the waste be all the fish lost while collecting ornamental fish that serve no purpose what so ever other then decortion?


----------



## Raul-7 (Feb 4, 2004)

That's odd. I always noticed Black tips as being quite docile, like most reef sharks. They can get aggressive, but that only happens when tempted by a meal or in a feeding frenzy. Black tips don't grow to large and why should they attack even after being fed. Maybe those sharks you witnessed were Grey reef sharks?


----------



## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Justin Fournier said:


> I wouldn't say it's a waste. Would any fish taken from the wild that is destined to be eaten a waste, weather it be for your consumption or a sharks?
> 
> Wouldn't the waste be all the fish lost while collecting ornamental fish that serve no purpose what so ever other then decortion?


You could look at it that way too... :?

What I was trying to say is, black tips don't need to eat colorful tangs and whatnot to survive do they?


----------



## Justin Fournier (Jan 27, 2004)

Raul,

Black tips are quite docile, most of the time. When they think they are gonna be fed, might be fed, can take a fish as a meal they can, will and do. Period. I have spent a couple years taking care of them. No they are not Grey reef sharks. Look at the pics  

nonamethefish,

No they don't need to eat nice big colorful tangs to be healthy. However big colorful fish is what many people viewing a display want to see. So to make a Shark display look full, colorful and active, large colorful fish are used. One of the most practical large colorful reef fish to keep/feed is a tang. See where I am going with this?


----------

