The following article was sent to us by Eddie, one of our very dedicated and valued volunteers who assists at our weekly Open Sunday. Eddie has become quite keen on learning more about Carpet Shark reproductive biology since one of our recent carpet sharks laid an egg. This is his account of the event and subsequent observations to date.
Carpet Shark Diary
Eddie (Future Marine Biologist)
Part one: Caroline the 2nd
If you have been following our Facebook page, you will have noticed that on the 17/01/2014 we had a Carpet Shark brought to us at the Island Bay Marine Education Centre. This was a special one as she was pregnant. Then it became even more amazing as she gave birth and laid one lonely egg in our aquarium. But not to worry! Although the egg is all by itself, it is being looked after. Not by its mother, as she has done her part, but by me, Jules, Victor, Judy and all the other volunteers that help make the Marine Centre so wonderful.
The egg is healthy and looking good. I have seen no change in the appearance and think it will take some time before this happens. The reason for this is because it will take anywhere from 9-15 months to hatch. I found this out from talking to scientists at Te Papa, NIWA, Portobello Marine Lab in Dunedin and our own scientist Victor.
The egg is not too big, as it would easily fit in the palm of a adult's hand. It is 11cm long, 2.5cm wide at one end and the other end has come together with tangling of the tendrils (they are the part that hold the egg in place so it doesn’t float away). There is a bulge on the egg were the yolk is and the egg case is 4cm wide there and the yolk itself is 4 by 3cm. I could get this information as the egg is transparent at the moment. But I suspect that it will start to darken in colour when the baby shark growing inside starts to get bigger and becomes visible to the naked eye.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook page as any new up-dates will be posted there, as well as on the calendar that we had made that is sitting above its tank. It has been about 6 weeks since it was laid so there is a long road of SCIENCE and EXCITEMENT ahead. Talk to you all in about a month with another update.
Eddie.