Racer

Hello all, just found this thread using a Google search. I was searching to see how long IR Sharks live. A loong time ago, we moved into a house with a built-in 110 gal tank. We bought a bunch of cute fish for it. 2 of the fish we bought were these IR sharks. After we got them home we noticed one of them only had one eye and the other had NO eyes! Well, fastforward 18 years and the blind Shark is still alive and 22 inches long! I HAD NO IDEA he would live that long or get that big! Freak out WOW, you can say that again! My Sharky (as we call him) goes beserk about once every week or two. I would say we are on our 7th heater! And yes, one time I came home and heard this weird flapping noise, I looked down into our den and noticed no shark! I ran down to the aquarium and opened the top wood doors to find Mr. Sharky flopping on top of the flat cover almost on his last breath. One other time he freaked out and broke through the top and landed behind the aquarium on the floor in a spot that took me seemed like 5 minutes to get him out and back into his home. The cover is now very securely held in place. The Aquarium is on it's last legs and we really want to take it out and redo our Den, but we agreed not to do anything until Mr. Sharkey, Mr Scaredy Cat(16 year old plecosamus) who lives under a log and NEVER comes out ever and Mr Snufulu***as (16 year old striped cat fish) pass away. Looks like this room is NEVER going ot get redone!
Oh yea, I honestly have never tested my water for almost 15 years. I only ad that slime coat stuff when I change 1/3 of my water every 6 weeks or so.
Anyways, just thought I would share a story about these massive beasts. I really do wish we were properly educated that day long ago when we went into that pet store to buy some little cute fish.

Red1313

Oh wow I would kill for a built in 110 gal... <drool>

aquarist48

Hello Racer and Welcome to Fish Lore. What an amazing story.
The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle
This link will be a great help to you. It sounds like it may be time to find a public aquarium for your huge shark to go into. Just a thought. I know you may be really attached to him by now. Just think, then you could get an even larger tank when you remodel!
I hope you enjoy the site.
Ken

I have moved your post to create your own thread. You should get more responses and "welcomes" to the site. Have fun and enjoy!
Ken

Amanda

Wow!! Welcome to Fishlore!
We would LOVE pics!

abc123d30

I agree with amanda, I would love to see pics of that tank.

Racer

I will take some. It is nothing special at all, it is old and it needs to be taken out and a new one put in, but there is no way Mr. Sharky will allow me to touch him, let alone move him!

Racer

OK, here it/they are. Really, night time pics even make it look worse than it really is.
The nice thing about the tank is, it has hot and cold water right there
to fill it, and a drain pipe to hook my "vacuum" into it when I clean it,
no slopping full pails of water around or anything like that.




Look ma, no eye balls!!!


Mr. Snufu l u f a g u s is just about one foot long, but looks miniscule next to Mr. Sharky.


As you can see, my tank is 4 feet long and Mr. Sharky is over half it's length.


Well, there it is, I can't show you Mr. Scaredy Cat cause he lives under
the log and NEVER comes out, don't know what he eats, but
I know he doesn't do the jog I hired him for......cleaning the glass!

TFA101

Sorry for the highjack, but how does one acclimate such a large fish to new surroundings? I'd imagine the whole baggie deal would be out of the question...

Wonderful fish you have there Racer. I'd love to have myself an iridescent one day. If only they were... say, neon tetra sized.

abc123d30

Woah, that is one big fish.
That is a pretty cool tank though, I think it'd be awesome to have one built in like that.

Red1313

amazing tank!

wilkinson7133

no flipping way do they get that big! there about 4" in my local shop! was thinking about gettin one, good job i checked up on it 8G wouldn't house it for long. love the tank im getting one in the new year 4ft long aswell not sure wot to put in it yet, how did you fit the drain to it or was it already fitted when you got it?

Lucy

They're probably young.
Check them out at an Aquarium.
You'll see the difference between young fish and full grown ones.

sirdarksol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark
Check out the pic on this page. It's amazing that the cute little guys in the fish stores grow to be these monsters.

btate617

So the 4 in my 12 gallon won't work out........haha j/k.

Seriously this is one of those fish only about 1%, if that, of people have the proper room for.


Brian

sirdarksol

I agree. There are some fish that should only be available for special order. The proper term for a body of water large enough for these things is no longer "aquarium," in my opinion. It's "glass-sided pond."