Bamboo Shark, Long-Tailed Carpet Shark, Epaulette Shark

Family Hemiscylliidae

Bamboo Shark, Long-tailed Carpet Shark, Epaulette Shark

Greek, Hemi = half + Greek, skylla, -es = a shark

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Chondrichthyes

Subclass: Elasmobranchii

Order: Orectolobiformes

Family: Hemiscylliidae

**Genus: Chiloscyllium

**Genus: Hemiscyllium

*Species: n~13

Defining Characteristics:

– Slender, max length ~1m, most under 70cm

– Mouth ventral

– Large spiracles below eyes

– Short nasal barbell

– Two dorsal fins without spines

– Anal fin low and rounded, behind 2nd dorsal

– Five gill slits

– Fourth and fifth gill opening behind origin of pectoral fin

– Precaudal tail longer than head and body length

– Rounded, highly mobile pectoral and pelvic fin

Distribution and Habitat:

– Bottom dwellers

– Coral Reefs

– Marine tropical and subtropical, continental shelves

– Neritic, close to shore to 100m

– Hemiscyllids endemic to Australia, New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

– Chiloscylids widespread, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Indo-West Pacific, to S. Japan.

Feeding Behavior:

– Food includes small bottom fishes and invertebrates

– Suction feeding

General Behavior:

– Relatively sluggish and harmless, spending most of their time resting on the bottom.

– Highly mobile pectoral and pelvic fins, used for benthic “crawling”.

– Nocturnal

Reproduction:

– One in situ observation of bamboo shark: Larger male grasped female’s left pectoral fin, the pair orient vertically in water with noses near benthos. Copulation lasted around 2 minutes with a short (1min) benthic resting period before parting.

– Female usually lays a pair of eggs.

– Young hatch from round to oval egg cases after 14-15 weeks.

Population Status:

- 9 species listed on IUCN, more data needed for all species.

- Used as foodfishes

- Exploitation by the aquarium industry

Interesting Tidbits:

- Some spp. able to survive low oxygen conditions, out of water up to 12 hours.

- True albino Chiloscyllium plagiosum hatched in captivity.

- Parthenogenesis documented in captive Chiloscyllium plagiosum.

- Two new species of Epaulette Shark thought to be genus Hemiscyllium discovered 9/06 in West Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

References:

Carrier, J.C., Musick, J.A., Heithaus, M.R., 2004. Biology of sharks and their relatives. CRC Press, pp. 45-46, 67.

Clark, S., 2002. First report of albinism in the white-spotted bamboo shark, Chiloscyllium plagiosum (Orectolobiformes: Hemiscyllidae), with a review of reported color aberrations in elasmobranches. Zoo Biology, Volume 21, Issue 6, Pages 519 – 524.

Compagno, L.J.V., 1988. Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes. Princeton University Press, pp. 64-68.

Cornish, A.S., 2005. First Observation of Mating in the Bamboo Shark Hemiscyllium freycineti (Chondrichthyes: Hemiscylliidae) Zoological Studies 44(40): 454-457.

Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2007.FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (08/2007), accessed 10/1/07.

IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 01 October 2007.

Nelson, J.S., 2006. Fishes of the World 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pg. 55.

Wilga, C. D., Lauder, G.V., 2001. Functional morphology of the pectoral fins in bamboo sharks, Chiloscyllium plagiosum: Benthic vs. Pelagic station-holding. Journal of Morphology, Volume 249, Issue 3 Pg 195 – 209.

Amber McCammon 10/9/07