This is Link. He is a baby Horn Shark and the newest addition to the crew. I was at a fish store helping a friend get some fish for their new freshwater aquarium when I saw this little guy.
He was obviously under weight and he actually had the lobster’s that he shared his tank with head in his mouth right after I took this picture.
I know the owner of the store, so I let her know so that she should move the lobster to another tank. She then explained to me that the shark had come in by mistake. She only sells them to people who she knows has enough room for them and will properly care for them. So she had ordered one with their last shipment for a customer who requested one and then Link came in the next shipment in addition to the other one by mistake.
Since finding a suitable home for this little guy could take a while and the shark was obviously very underweight, I took him home. I am still working on getting his weight to an acceptable level but so far he is doing great!
This was about a week or so after El Guapo had passed away so I definitely could not just leave the little guy at the store since I have seen how much work goes into ensuring this species survival when they are that underweight at such a young age. This is by no fault of the store, the sharks can get stressed out from being shipped, etc. So this is actually not that uncommon. Link was just very, very underweight.
Once he fills out a bit more and is eating larger food, I will target train him – which entails training him to come over to the feeding tongs and taking the food directly from me. This way once he is with the larger sharks it will be easy for me to ensure that he is able to get his food. Plus, the other sharks in the main pond are also target fed and it really helps to avoid any potential aggression issues that could occur during feeding time.
If you are thinking about getting a shark as a pet, I highly recommend that you check out my online course. It will give you a very realistic view of what you will need to know in order to ensure that the shark is thriving in captivity as they deserve nothing less. Here is a link to the course: https://aquapparel.teachable.com/p/aquarium-sharks-101