Aquarium Reptile Complex (ARC)
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| Scientific Name: Chiloscyllium plagiosum |
| Description: |
| A bottom-dwelling shark found living on reefs, the white-spotted bamboo shark feeds mainly at night on fish and crustaceans. The bamboo shark's slender body can glide between coral branches and hide in tight reef structures. It can reach an adult length of three and a half feet long. Like all sharks, it is quite easy to determine the males from the females. Males have external appendages called claspers used to fertilize females. After a female is fertilized, she lays an egg case with a developing embryo shark inside. It can take up to three months to hatch. Young sharks are approximately five inches long when they are born. |
| Range: |
| Pacific Ocean from Japan to Indonesia and Thailand to India. |
| Status in the Wild: |
| Although this shark species is not heavily preyed upon, its survival is in jeopardy. The dynamics of the food chain on the reef determines its existence. As coral reefs are affected by global warming and non-point source pollution, so then are the white-spotted bamboo sharks. |
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