Stories & learnings of our Chinese High Fin Banded sharks

[@nathancole6910]

I have one here in Bay Area of California. Rescued from a Petco 2 months ago. Lol. Maybe 3" long. Small or crushed up bottom feeder pellets were key to getting it to eat. It needs the pellets to get soft to eat. Seperated from the other fish because the cories were eating up all the sinking food before the hi-fin could get any. Now growing and seemingly happy. Would eat all day if i let him.

[@Fish-Story]

Thank you for this. Sounds similar to our experience with them. A very slow feeder on small and soft pellets. But I still have no idea why out of the latest batch of 5 only 1 lived. In the prior years two batches of 2 each have been fine, at least initially, until the water got too warm for them I think.

[@nathancole6910]

They eat so slow. If one is a little bit faster then the rest could have starved. Alternately, 4 out of 5 could be bad stock.

[@Fish-Story]

@@nathancole6910 I buried them with feed. I suppose the 4 couldn't learn in time to recognize new feed, albeit I saw them eating but maybe it wasn't enough.

[@nathancole6910]

​@@Fish-Storylots of variables. Maybe they should be raised (and fed) alone initially.

[@lorineilly6103]

Thank you so much for highlighting this high fin. What a beauty! Just the most interesting fish you have I think. I really love it so much. The face is stunning! Thanks so much it was such a pleasure to see this video. Thank you thank you. ❤

[@Fish-Story]

Glad you enjoyed it. To me all our fish are interesting, the more so, the longer you keep them and the more time you spend with them, and the more you read about them, their life in the wild.

[@oscardean6351]

One of the story’s great characters :)

[@Fish-Story]

shyest characters :)

[@69nisab]

Cool video. Really like these fish due to their looks and calm temperament.

[@Fish-Story]

Yes, thanks. You are a rarer kind. Most people dig more dramatic looks and temperament :)

[@justinstuart8382]

One of the most awesome fish ever. Wish I could get one. Very hard to get and illegal in the UK I believe.

[@Fish-Story]

You are a rarer kind. Most people dig more dramatic looks and temperament :) Yes, sorry to hear they are banned in the UK along with all other colder water fish... At least you can have all the tropicals, right? In contrast to Australians who can't have either temperates or tropicals.

[@justinstuart8382]

@@Fish-Story yes you are right. I can have Asian Arowana at least. I have 2.

[@Fish-Story]

@@justinstuart8382 sweet!

[@justinstuart8382]

@@Fish-Story cple of videos of them on my channel

[@Ian-qw1zb]

Okay so I'd like to be corrected on this if it's not true but can't find anything saying that they can handle water below 40°. I have one he's probably about 10 inches and I separated him from my koi when I finished my outdoor pond and put my koi outside. And it's because I can't find anything saying they can handle it when the water freezes over. As a matter of fact i have been told they can't handle our New York Winters.. their comfort range is 55 to 72 they go dormant below 55 (the same as koi) and to my understanding they go belly up below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. They're from the Yangtze River and I don't believe the Yangtze River ever freezes it stays cold year round but. But like I said I can't find nothing saying they can.

[@Jack-gh3vs]

I can give you my first hand experience keeping one in northern Colorado. I got about a 4 inch high fin in late march of 2023 and put him into my koi pond. He’s fed solely on algae within the pond and is growing well. He overwintered perfectly, just as the koi and goldfish do. The ice on the pond got to about 5 inches thick. I do have a waterfall and a couple of air stones running on the pond just to give you an idea of my setup. The pond is 3 foot deep in the deepest part, and probably about 1,000 gallons

[@Ian-qw1zb]

@@Jack-gh3vs thank you that helps first-hand experience is what I was looking for. And I bet the algae will make it grow well.. they seem to be a picky eater preferring to graze and never to compete.. super docile fish. So then there's the only other thing is can they handle 90 degrees +excessively in a 3-foot pond mine is roughly 1400 gallons planning on building one adjacent to it with a connecting stream next year..

[@Fish-Story]

@@Jack-gh3vs Wonderful input, thank you so much! My two thoughts connected to this are that this pond is on the small and shallow end and there is a risk that it'd freeze all the way to the bottom at some time (cold winter, cold spell), which would kill all fish. And the other thought is trivial, I am sure you know - the pond needs to have a breather hole open all the time it is iced over for gas exchange.

[@Fish-Story]

A couple of visitors of ours were from Massachusetts and maybe NY or NJ and had had High Fins in their koi ponds for decade+. I am sure their ponds freeze over. But no personal 1sthand experience of mine. You did make me doubt! :) I am so grateful for the Colorado Jack's input.

[@Fish-Story]

@@Ian-qw1zb As I reported before and also in this video, our prior attempts with High Fins led to their demise at temps over 85F, despite superb aeration. I believe. Can't prove it but the two tries with multiple fish each time seemed quite consistent to me.

[@jimt5683]

Please subscribe, let Vic to 100k 🙏🙏

[@Fish-Story]

:) a heartfelt thank you for this cute and sincere attempt :) But I believe people don't ever subscribe out of pity or because they are asked, nor should they. They subscribe to something they like, enjoy and/or find useful on a regular basis, daily and weekly!

[@KuhliLoachTrainer]

RE: Slow eating. If I remember right you mentioned that the American eels in the tank are hand fed by visitors. Do you think the high fin shark could be trained to do this as well? It might be easier to feed (which is to say less slow, maybe less picky too) if it is trained to hand feed. Also, where will this one go when/if it gets too big for its present tank? 25k/100 liter is not suitable I assume and neither would be the 4500/18k liter or 1800/7k liter, presumably it would go with the koi in their to-be-built tank?

[@Fish-Story]

Thank you. There seems to be no point in handfeeding the High Fin to make it easier to feed because it takes little feed and chews a long time. You'd be standing there for 30 min giving it few tiny pellets at a time (all it can take is small items), while it could have been picking them up on its own from the bottom. ... Correct on the homing, but who knows what tanks we will have at hand by the time it reaches 1.5-2ft. It is so slow growing.

[@KuhliLoachTrainer]

Such thorough explanation is appreciated. Many thanks on covering all grounds in your explanations for or against the cases of peer-suggested modifications like this:)

[@karaleeann1211]

What do the Chinese high fin prefer to eat now? Chopped fish or pellets? I like him, he’s very handsome! ❤

[@Fish-Story]

Strictly a small pellet fish. They were born to eat long string algae though. A peer mentioned seeing a 3 footer in a show koi tank in Colorado. That'd be cool.

[@fihimsadiq8779]

would like to own one but banned in the UK

[@Fish-Story]

Wow, you're kidding! Why?

[@fihimsadiq8779]

@@Fish-Story most non-native cold water fishes are banned from import, some you can get a licence if you own a fisheries/private lake. I think a long while back some non-native got released into public water ways and cause lots of damage to the local ecosystem.

[@Fish-Story]

@@fihimsadiq8779 Gotcha. Thank you for explaining. So this is a sort of prophylactical, preemptive, preventative, and wide ban. Like in Australia? The bad tradeoff is that it hurts honest and responsible fish keepers to live in a fish-keeping prison, and future generations will be deprived of learning this aspect of nature first hand.

[@ianredgate4031]

ever keep one of those giant eels from New Zealand?

[@Fish-Story]

I've been drooling over them for 20 years but it seems no one exports them and no one imports them. Perhaps they are protected? Or no market has been found for them yet. Or no one ever thought to try it.

[@matheauwilson5010]

I have had issues with predatory fins fish dying after a few weeks.and they never go good for them either!!

[@Fish-Story]

Well, you know it is impossible for a vendor to know why fish die after such a long time. They only give the DOA warranty, which already is a nice industry standard. I tend to blame myself, my water, the bio composition of our tanks. But surely, this is one of those things that's impossible to prove or refute.

[@sophiayi7747]

I live in nc. I got 2 from a pond shop out here for $55 each at 2 in long we have a pond

[@sophiayi7747]

They did good. I got them in the spring. We have 100° + summers . They lived.

[@Fish-Story]

Sounds great. This is helpful. How old and big are they now? How big and deep is your pond? Do you measure water temp?

[@Fish-Story]

bump

[@COOPERSCICHILDS]

👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿

[@Fish-Story]

Hiatus, Cooper? :) Welcome back.

[@twasbrillig33]

unagi eels 🤤

[@Fish-Story]

haha... these are from a farm indeed, and people say eels can be delicious. My Mom cooked some when I was young and caught them and brought home but I don't remember the taste, probably ordinary fishy taste. We lived in Algeria 4 years and I caught them there. Even kept one in a huge bowl :)