A great white shark that spent 137 days at a California aquarium

A great white shark that spent 137 days at a California aquarium is back in the Pacific Ocean today. It's only the second time that one of the feared predators has been released after such a long time in captivity.

The male shark measured 6 feet 5 inches long and weighed 171 pounds when released Tuesday, compared with 5 feet 8 inches and 103 pounds when he arrived at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Aug. 31. He is one of two great whites to survive more than 16 days in captivity in 50 years of attempts by aquariums around the world, experts in Monterey said.

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Comment:
These sharks are almost impossible to keep in captivity for any length of time.
Many sharks can be difficult to keep in home aquariums even thought they be sold for home aquariums. Horn sharks are shy scavengers (they usually eat chopped squid well) that will do reasonably well in smaller marine aquariums (at least a 75 gallon). Leopard sharks are also scavengers, but they require cool water (below 70 F) and will out grow most aquariums, if kept at least a 300 gallon aquarium is required. Leopard sharks are not as shy, but feeding can be a problem, as other fish will often find the food faster than the shark.

For many scavenger sharks I will use feeder goldfish that have recently been fed Spirulina Flake so as to ensure proper nutrition (even predators need some vegetable matter and this is often achieved in nature by whole fish consumption that includes stomach contents), I then cut the goldfish behind the head so as to kill it and then partially bury the goldfish in the gravel for the shark to find (usually quickly).

Carl