The brownbanded bamboo shark (''Chiloscyllium punctatum''), is a bamboo shark in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Hemiscylliidae The Hemiscylliidae are a family of sharks in the order Orectolobiformes, commonly known as longtail carpet sharks and sometimes as bamboo sharks. They are found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific. They are relatively small sharks ...

that can be found in the

Indo-West Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, between

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

s 34° N and 26° S. It is regularly bred in

public aquaria A public aquarium (plural: ''public aquaria'' or ''public Water Zoo'') is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept b ...

, and is arguably one of the sharks most suited to captivity due to its docile disposition, sedentary nature, and relatively small size. In public aquariums, these fish can live up to 25 years.

Features

These sharks can be distinguished by their concave posterior margined dorsal fin. No color patterns are present for the adults, however, the juveniles have dark transverse bands with some dark spots. It can grow up to . It is a nocturnal animal and can survive out of the water for up to 12 hrs. They have

barbels In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whiskerlike sensory organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the zebrafish, the black dragonfish and some ...

that resemble feline whiskers, hence the common name "cat shark". Despite this moniker, they are not true members of the

catshark Catsharks are ground sharks of the family Scyliorhinidae. They are the largest family of sharks with around 160 species placed in 17 genera. Although they are generally known as catsharks, some species can also be called dogfish due to previous n ...

family, and are more closely related to the

nurse shark The nurse shark (''Ginglymostoma cirratum'') is an elasmobranch fish in the family Ginglymostomatidae. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as Vulnerable in the IUCN List of Threatened Species. They are considered t ...

wobbegongs The wobbegong is the common name given to the 12 species of carpet sharks in the family Orectolobidae. They are found in shallow temperate and tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean, chiefly around Australia and ...

, and

whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Branch TA, Chen C, Cosgrove J, D ...

s, belonging to the family

Orectolobiformes Carpet sharks are sharks classified in the order Orectolobiformes . Sometimes the common name "carpet shark" (named so because many species resemble ornately patterned carpets) is used interchangeably with "wobbegong", which is the common name ...

Habitat

These sharks live around

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

s and

tide pool A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

s. It resides at depths down to .

Sharks as pets

The minimum size of the tank that can carry an adult cat shark is about 180 gallons. Because these sharks are

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

, they will need some type of shaded area within the tank where the shark could hide. Although these sharks do not swim around too much, it is highly suggested that the items within the tank should be stable; brownbanded bamboo sharks are very strong and will knock down anything that is not stable inside the tank. Also this shark should not be placed with triggers and puffers; they will nip at the shark's fins, nor should they be placed with aggressive feeders.

Reproduction

It reproduces oviparously.

Feeding

These sharks are carnivores that should be fed 2-3 times a week; some of their diet includes fresh

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families ...

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

, and marine fishes. In order to prevent

goiter A goitre, or goiter, is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland. A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly. Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are caused by iodine deficiency. The term is ...

disease, they should take iodine supplements. Two things to be aware of when feeding the shark: one is to make sure that the meals are bite sized or else it will throw it back up and the second is sometimes juveniles are difficult to get to eat so adding a flavor enhances their interest .

DNA

In 2018, a group led by Shigehiro Kuraku published a draft assembly of the

genome sequence In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding gen ...

of the brown-banded bamboo shark in the journal ''

Nature Ecology & Evolution ''Nature Ecology and Evolution'' is an online-only monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group covering all aspects of research on ecology and evolutionary biology. It was established in 2017. Its first and curre ...

''. In this study, the brown-banded bamboo shark genome was sequenced and assembled using DNA samples provided by a Japanese aquarium,

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan The is an aquarium located in the ward of Minato in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, near Osaka Bay. When it first opened, it was the largest public aquarium in the world. It is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The a ...

. It was sequenced using

Illumina sequencing Illumina dye sequencing is a technique used to determine the series of base pairs in DNA, also known as DNA sequencing. The reversible terminated chemistry concept was invented by Bruno Canard and Simon Sarfati at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. It ...

technology and assembled using a short read genome assembler. According to their analysis, the genome size is estimated to be 4.7 giga base-pairs. The slow molecular evolutionary rate of

elasmobranchs Elasmobranchii () is a Class (biology), subclass of Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish, including sharks (superorder Selachii), Batoidea, rays, skate (fish), skates, and sawfish (superorder Batoidea). Members of this subclass are characteris ...

(sharks, rays and skates) has been reported repeatedly. Despite such slow evolutionary nature, it was once reported that elasmobranchs probably lost HoxC cluster, one of the four

Hox gene Hox genes, a subset of homeobox genes, are a group of related genes that specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the cor ...

clusters. However, the genome sequence of the brown-banded bamboo shark revealed the existence of several Hoxc genes.

Threats

Its minimum population doubling is in the 4.5–14 years range. The major threats to these sharks are the loss of their habitat, pollution, and capture (both for aquarium trade as well as food).Unknown
"''Chiloscyllium punctatum''"
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. N.p., 2010. Web. 15 April 2010.

In popular culture

The main protagonist of the 2012 Malaysian animated feature film '' SeeFood'' is a talking, sentient young brownbanded bamboo shark named Pup, whose ability to breathe on land plays a major role in the plot.

References

* * Compagno, Dando, & Fowler, ''Sharks of the World'', Princeton University Press, New Jersey 2005
Bamboo Shark Hatched at Australia's Melbourne Aquarium via In-Vitro Fertilization
FishChannel.com {{Taxonbar, from=Q29227

brownbanded bamboo shark The brownbanded bamboo shark (''Chiloscyllium punctatum''), is a bamboo shark in the family Hemiscylliidae that can be found in the Indo-West Pacific from Japan to northern Australia, between latitudes 34° N and 26° S. It is regularly bred i ...

Fauna of India Marine fauna of East Asia Marine fish of Southeast Asia Fish of New Guinea Marine fish of Northern Australia