White Spotted Bamboo Shark ~ Reef dwellers ~ EGG

White Bamboo Shark

White Bamboo Shark Egg

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Orectolobiformes
Family:	Hemiscylliidae
Genus:	Chiloscyllium
Species:	C. plagiosum

FAST FACTS
Scientific Name: Chiloscyllium plagiosum Size: Up to 33 inches long, Males.  Up to 37 inches, Females
Range: Indo-Pacific West Oceans, Madagascar to Japan to Philippines  
Prey: Small fish and marine invertebrates
Predators: Larger fish, marine mammals and humans
Conservation status: Least Concern

Features

Dorsal fins with convex posterior margins. Color pattern of white and dark spots, with dark bands and a brown body. The coloration is unique in this family making it very simple for identification. The teeth of bamboo sharks are not strongly differentiated. Each tooth has a medial cusp and weak labial root lobes with 26–35 teeth on the upper jaw and 21–32 teeth on the lower jaw. Bamboo Sharks commonly rest on the bottom of their habitat with their head and trunk propped up by resting on their bent and depressed pectoral fins. Whitespotted bamboo sharks have a very distinct dorsal fin that can alter or effect where they choose to live, as well as their mobility methods. 

Feeding

These sharks feed at night, preying on small fish and invertebrates. They have small teeth that can be used for grasping or crushing prey. Soft prey is grasped when the tips of the teeth sink into the flesh, but the teeth pivot backwards when biting hard prey. This protects the tooth tip and allows the flattened front surface of the teeth to form a continuous plate for crushing crabs. Juvenile sharks need a higher intake of carbon than adults sharks, especially during the wet seasons. White spotted bamboo sharks have an advantage in finding carbon sources because they are benthic predators (meaning they prey on fish near the sea-bottom), as opposed to pelagic sharks like the spadenose shark. That, combined with the fact that these species of sharks have, like most sharks, electroreceptors (ampulae of lorenzini) along their snout to help them locate prey that is buried in the sand and mud, makes them very efficient users of detrital carbon resources.

Size:

Male white spotted bamboo sharks can reach up to 33 inches long but typically average between 27-31 inches; females can reach slightly larger sizes of up to 37 inches long, although average between 27-31 inches. 

Range/Distribution:

White Spotted Bamboo sharks are found in the Indo-Pacific West Oceans, as far west as Madagascar, as far north as Japan and as far east as the Philippines.

Habitat:

These sharks make their homes among the shallow waters of coral reef ecosystems.

Prey:

Their diet consists primarily of small fish and marine invertebrates.

Predators:

Predators of this shark species include larger fish, marine mammals, and humans.

Reproduction:

Reaching sexual maturity at approximately 25 inches in length, mating season for these sharks occur between December and January.  Females are oviparous (meaning these sharks lay eggs) and will lay eggs among the coral area between March and May.  The shark pup will hatch after a little over 100 days after the egg is laid.

Whitespotted bamboo sharks are oviparous (egg laying). The eggs are approximately five inches long and hatch after 14 or 15 weeks. The young hatch out at approximately 6 inches in length.  Doug Sweet, curator of fishes at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit reports that in July 2002 a clutch of eggs from a female whitespotted bamboo shark hatched without any apparent fertilization.  This appears to be the first reported example of parthenogenesis in this species.

Virgin Birth

A female Chiloscyllium plagiosum that had no contact with a male for 6 years, gave birth to 3 young at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit, Michigan. There are many theories for this incident but none are confirmed. The species have been found and collected at Ternate Island, Halmahera Island, Indonesia and generally the palearctic region in Asia. Among these theories, the three most likely would be that the female contains both the male and the female reproductive organs; the female has the ability to store sperm for that long; and lastly that the female has somehow stimulated the eggs without sperm, process called parthenogenesis.

White Spotted Bamboo Shark Egg

Threats:

Pressures affecting the white spotted bamboo sharks include fisheries for human consumption and the aquarium trade as well as habitat destruction due to harmful fishing practices, pollution and changes in climate.

Aquarium Conservation:

Some of the White Spotted Bamboo Sharks you see in the Shark Encounters Tank have been born and raised right here at the Mystic Aquarium. Our experienced aquarists breed and raise these species for exhibits as a sustainable way to inspire you to care for and protect our ocean planet while doing the same.