Up to 8 ft (2.4 m) 66 to 220 lbs (30 to 100 kg) Blacktip sharks are so common in Florida that scientists suspect most bites in the state can be pinned on the shark, but there has never been a single fatality in the region due to blacktip shark attack. Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man Please add a "relative" entry to your dictionary. The blacktip shark is found in warm coastal waters around the world—where it often encounters people. The animal frequents bays, estuaries, coral reefs, and the shallow waters off beaches and river mouths. During summer some blacktip sharks migrate to typically cooler waters, including those off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while others stay put in warmer equatorial waters year-round. Blacktips have been observed to live in sexually segregated schools except during the mating season. Blacktip sharks are sometimes spotted above the water. They leap above the surface, rotate several times, and splash down on their backs. This dramatic display is sometimes part of a stealthy feeding method they use to strike at schools of bony fishes near the water surface.

The sharks hurl themselves at the fish from below. Blacktip sharks supplement their diets with skates, stingrays, squids, and some crustaceans. These sharks have also been known to follow fishing boats and feed on discarded bycatch. In 2008 DNA evidence confirmed that a female shark fertilized her own egg, impregnating herself without the help of a male. It's not entirely known how rare this event, called parthenogenesis, is among blacktip or other sharks.During more conventional breeding blacktips offer scientists a fine opportunity for observation. The sharks gather in aggregations to set up pup nurseries in shallow, near-shore waters. Female blacktip sharks produce four to ten live, free swimming pups per litter. They begin to reproduce at age four or five and continue to do so every other year throughout their lives, which can last longer than a decade. Young blacktips live in the coastal nurseries as juveniles, which likely helps them avoid predation from larger sharks. But the shark's preference for in-shore waters makes it particularly vulnerable to coastal development, which eliminates critical habitat such as nursery sites, and commercial fishing, which is particularly widespread in the southeastern United States, Mexico, and India.

Worldwide, the blacktip is listed by the IUCN as near threatened, largely because it's considered quite tasty and often targeted for its meat and its fins, which are used to make shark fin soup. Learn all you wanted to know about sharks with videos, quizzes, puzzles, and more. Science and sport fishing join forces for a never-before-attempted research effort to study massive great white sharks in the wild. All About the Ocean Explore and discover the world's oceans like never before with facts, photos, news, video, and more! An Eden for Sharks Now under threat in the increasingly humanized seas, sharks still find refuge and freedom in the Bahamas. Join photographer Brian Skerry in what he describes as "a Garden of Eden for sharks."Know Your Sportfish Fin identification helps to correctly identify your catch. Get the Sport Fish of Florida Book! BE SURE TO ABIDE BY THE LAW A great many kinds of fish are protected by conservation laws that may include licenses, daily bag limits, possession limits, minimum and maximum size limits, permitting and other legal requirements.

Many different jurisdictions and agencies are involved in managing the fisheries—at least a half-dozen in Florida alone, to say nothing of other countries—and their regulations sometimes conflict. In Florida, information is available from such sources as Florida Sportsman Magazine, county courthouses and many tackle shops. Visitors to Florida or the Islands usually are able to get the needed information from their travel agents, resorts, fishing camps or charter captains. Kittens For Sale Bend Or for the most current fisheries regulations.Indoor Light Sensitivity Glasses How-To Articles & Videos    •    Where's The Bite    •    Regulations    •    Recipes    •Towel Rack Extender Gray above, white below.

Tips of dorsal and pectoral fins are black, as is the lower lobe of the caudal fin. Short snout and stout body. Dorsal fin begins at a point above the rear portion of the pectoral fin. SIZE: Common from 5-30 pounds; seldom reaches 100 pounds, but reported to 200 or more. World record 270 pounds, 9 ounces; Florida record 152 pounds.FOOD VALUE: Very good.GAME QUALITIES: Pound for pound, probably the scrappiest of sharks.Wages a wild battle on light tack- le, marked by long runs and frantic jumps, especially in shallow water.TACKLE AND BAITS: Spinning and baitcasting outfits; Takes shrimp and any sort of fresh cut bait.With good presentation (Sharks have poor eye- sight, and you have to put the lure very close to them), they will also hit a variety of artificial lures, especially topwater plugs and flyrod poppers; large (for purposes of visibility) streamer flies; slow-swim- ming jigs and underwater plugs. OTHER NAMES:Small Blacktip RANGE: All Florida coasts, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. 

HABITAT: Occurs from the open sea to the coast. One of the most familiar sharks in Florida, where it is often seen on shal- low flats and along beaches and shorelines.Also plentiful around passes and inlets.Click here to read about my Garra Rufa / Doctor fish thoughts and experience Posted in: cichlid gender, fish gender, tell the gender of a fish, tetra gender Angelfish are nearly impossible to sex accurately. Occasionally fully mature males will show a modest nuchal hump, which is a bump on the head just above the eyes. However, don't count on it. The best way to establish a mating pair is to purchase a half dozen immature angelfish and raise them together. When they are mature enough they will pair off, and you will have at least one breeding pair out of the group. Cichlids are such a diverse group, that it would take a small novel to give specifics for sexing each species. While many are not easily differentiated, there are a few rules of thumb that apply to quite a few species.

The only sure way to determine the sex of egg laying fish is to do what the experts call "venting" the fish. You must remove the fish from the water (net it out of the tank) and turn it upside down (hold it very gently, they can be hurt easily) so you can examine the vent holes in the anal area. Only do this over a bucket of tank water so if you drop the fish or it flips out of your hands, it will fall into the water in the bucket. You will see that the females will have a rounded vent (hole) and the males will have a tear-drop shaped vent. If the fish are young, it will be very difficult to discern the difference in shapes. Males are often slimmer, but larger than females, and are more vibrantly colored. The dorsal and anal fins of the male are more pointed, larger, and more flowing than the female. In many species the male will display egg shaped markings on the anal fin. Some males have a bump on the head, referred to as a nuchal hump. Although the above general rules apply to many species of cichlids, if you are considering breeding them I strongly recommend doing your homework on the specific species before seeking a breeding pair.

Cyprinids / Barb Gender Barbs and other members of the cyprinid family are rather difficult to sex. Differences will vary by species, but generally males are more intensely colored and slimmer than females. Because most cyprinids are schooling fish, one way to obtain a breeding pair is to purchase a group of them. One way to know is that female barbs are quite larger than the male ones. In addition to the dorsal fin differences, certain species of Gourami show color variations between the sexes. The male Pearl Gourami has a deep red-orange coloration on the throat and breast. The male Moonlight Gourami has orange to red coloration of the pelvic fins. Perhaps the easiest fish to sex are the livebearing fish. Males are usually smaller and more colorful than the females. They also possess an external sexual organ, the gonopodium, which makes it easy to differentiate males from the females. The gonopodium is a modified anal fin which is used to fertilize eggs.