Date: March 31st, 4:12pm
Today's fish of the day is the rusty carpetshark!
The rusty carpetshark, also known by the scientific name Parascyllium ferrugineum. This name draws from the Latin word ferrugineum, meaning rust covered, which likely refers to the brown saddle coloration's along the back of the species. These sharks can be found around Southern Australia, in between latitudes 31 degrees South to 41 degrees South. Found a depth of 5-150 meters around rocky environments. Although this shark prefers to spend its time hunting around rocky reefs, it can hunt around sandy areas, or kelp and seagrass beds. Nocturnal during the night, the rusty carpet shark spends the day time hiding in caves, and under dark ledges. This has led to their status as a rarely seen shark by divers and researchers.
This species diet consists entirely of invertebrates, primarily crustaceans, mollusks, and polychaetes. Like many other sharks in the Parascyllium genus, the rusty carpetshark is nocturnal, spending their days hiding in caves or beneath dark ledges. These sharks have 5-7 rows of teeth per jaw, which are long and sharp. Specially shaped for the grabbing, crushing, and then grinding of prey with slender triangular teeth and a rounded cusp around the base, making them apt at hunting benthic organisms! These sharks are characterized by their small size, eyes, and only 80cm in length, making them one of the shortest of the Parascyllium genus!
Although little is known about the lifecycle and reproduction of the rusty carpetshark, we know much more about the reproduction of these sharks much better than that of many other Indo-Pacific carpetsharks! These sharks, as with all of their family, are oviparous. Meaning that these sharks lay eggs, which will hatch outside of the mothers body. Rusty carpet sharks in particular lay their eggs during the summer months, with pups later hatching at a size of 17cm weeks later. These pups are left to fend for themselves, as solitary animals. Their maturity is based on size, rather than age, as is common in carpet sharks. Once males reach a size of 60cm, and females reach a size of 75cm these fish mature sexually. These sharks will eventually reach a full maximum size of 80cm, if they are not predated on by larger fish. Their lifespan in unknown, but thought to be around 1-3 years. These species are currently not thought to be threatened by anything other than occasionally being caught as bycatch
That's the rusty carpetshark, I hope you've enjoyed learning about them!
Sources:
Parascyllium ferrugineum. (n.d.).
Parascyllium ferrugineum summary page.(n.d.). FishBase.
Rusty Carpetshark, Parascyllium Ferrugineum. (n.d.-a).
Ronny. (2024, October 21).Rusty carpetshark – Parascyllium ferrugineum.