Arabian Carpetshark

Fascinating facts about the Arabian Carpetshark

• A shallow-water specialist, this carpet shark spends most of its life in waters under 10 m (33 ft) deep, even though it can be found as deep as 100 m (328 ft). Living right on the reef edge means it’s constantly exposed to the same pressures that threaten coral, linking its fate to the health of these fragile ecosystems.
• When a male mates, he clamps onto a female’s pectoral fin with his mouth and inserts a single clasper for just 5–15 minutes – a brief ballet that can turn violent when rivals bite each other’s claspers. This high-stakes contest shows how even tiny sharks have fierce competition over mates.
• Females lay egg capsules in batches of four, producing about 33 capsules a year, and roughly 7 % of those eggs never develop. Each capsule sticks to coral with tendrils and hatches after 70–80 days at 24 °C (75 °F), a timeline that ties the shark’s reproduction to stable, warm reef conditions.
• Newborns emerge under 10 cm (3.9 in) long and must grow to 45–54 cm (18–21 in) before they can reproduce, meaning they spend many months vulnerable on the reef floor. Their slow journey to maturity makes population recovery difficult when adult numbers drop.
• It is a predominant component of the “cat shark” catch of Kuwaiti prawn trawls, and the cat-shark bycatch represents about 14 % of the total catch of that fishery.

At a glance

About the Arabian Carpetshark

The Arabian carpetshark, Chiloscyllium arabicum, glides through the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf to western India with a sleek, nearly cylindrical form that reaches up to 78 cm (31 in). Its plain tan dorsal surface fades to a crisp white belly, occasionally brushed with an orange hue along the fin margins, while juveniles display faint lighter spots. Two dorsal fins with straight trailing edges sit far apart, the second smaller yet longer-based, and a prominent ridge runs along the back, linking them. This demersal predator favors coral reefs, lagoons, rocky coastlines and mangrove estuaries, often sheltering in caves and crevices; most individuals are found shallower than 10 m (33 ft) but the species can occur down to 100 m (328 ft). It feeds on a varied menu of bony fishes, including snake eels, and invertebrates such as stomatopods, shrimp, crabs, squid, gastropods, and echiuroid worms, and can survive brief periods out of water. Reproduction is oviparous: females lay egg capsules in adhesive-tended batches of four, hatching after 70–80 days at 24 °C (75 °F), and the young emerge under 10 cm (3.9 in). Males clasp a female’s pectoral fin with their mouth while inserting a single clasper for up to 15 minutes during courtship.

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