Chinese Banded Shark

The Chinese high-fin banded shark (Myxocyprinus asiaticus) comes from the Yangtze basin, and it is really two fish in one listing. The juvenile is what people fall for: a small triangular body with a very tall sail-like dorsal fin and three bold dark bands. The adult loses the tall fin, loses the banding, grows long and heavy and turns a dark reddish-brown. If you buy one, you are buying the adult.

Aquarium care

• Grows beyond a metre and is long-lived.
• Subtropical to coldwater — it does not belong in a warm tropical tank for life.
• Needs a very large, cool, well-oxygenated system with strong flow.
• A peaceful bottom-feeding grazer that takes sinking foods and vegetable matter.
• Shoaling when young; juveniles are far more settled in a group.
• Not predatory, and not aggressive at any size.

Almost every one of these sold as a small juvenile eventually has nowhere to go, and the species is under real pressure in its native range. We would rather you bought one only if a very large cool-water system already exists. Never release aquarium fish into any pond, canal, stormwater basin or waterway.

Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is available for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. Browse the shark collection.