Show On Discovery Channel

[Discovery86]

Did anyone see the show on the Discovery Channel called Really Big Things about the Whale Sharks?? They got caught in fishermen's nets in Taiwan or Thailand or somplace thereabouts (my geography is terrible ) and were injured, so to save them they were taken to the Georgia Aquarium in the US. I was wondering if anyone could explain why they didn't quarantine the sharks. They were all worried about the amount of time they were in the transport containers and all the waste that builds up, but at first they didn't say anything about acclimation, and I thought they were just going to put them in the tank at the aquarium, sea water, waste and all.
So anyway, when they got to the aquarium the transportation tank was emptied and water from the aquarium put in, to acclimate the fish, and they did some blood tests, and then put the fish in the main aquarium. So why didn't they quarantine? (BTW, this was not an empty tank they went into; it already had two whale sharks and a lot of smaller fish in it)

Just Curious
tetragirl

 

[afishdude]

trust me they now what they are doing.

 

[GuppyDude]

I did not watch that particular show, but i saw another one from the Tiwan aquarium when they introduced a couple of the whale sharks. They had what seemed like a holding bay about the size of the transport containers that they filled with the transport water and the aquarium water. As far as quarantine goes im unsure. i guess mybe they can test the blood for that stuff?

 

[Maximus]

Aren't sharks immune to all known diseases?
Maybe theres no point

 

[rdd1952]

We went on a behind the scenes tour at the Georgia Aquarium last year. They do quarantine all fish although the whale sharks are so big it is more difficult. I can't remember how they did it. They did still have the UPS shipping containers that the original whale sharks arrived in. You get to see those in the behind the scenes tour. Unfortunately, they have lost 2 of their whale sharks this year (but got 2 more to replace them). Seeing the stuff behind the scenes there was pretty cool. It was expensive ($50 I think) but worth it in my opinion.

 

[dcfeeiv]

they aclimated them by draining and refilling (with water from the tank) the container at the same time

 

[roseK]

how big of a tank/aquarium do u need to house a whale shark

 

[confusion]

I live in GA and go to the aquarium often. I also saw that show

The tank they have is 6.2 million gallons - looked to be about 300 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 30 feet deep.

I thought it was odd, too, that they didn't do a FW dip, or some other sort of treatment, as much to keep nasties from the other 10,000 to 20,000 fish in the tank, as it is to help the ones they are introducing.

Like someone above said, they have a big team of marine biologists working it, and the cost of scrweing up has got to be crazy high.

 

[parker313]

The cost of screwing up is definitely high. The aquarium is already under close scrutiny for the whale sharks that they have lost. As in - why do you keep bringing in more when the ones you have are dying. We went in June and it was AWESOME. We sat for a long time and just watched that enormous tank with the whale sharks. It was just phenomenal.

 

[MojoDex]

you arnt exactly talking a 6x2x2 to quarantine a whale shark are you they know what there doing

 

[Discovery86]

Yeah, I'm sure they know what they're doing, I just found it odd that they didn't quarantine them.
Thanks for all the responses.

tetragirl