Origin
Native to the Indo-West Pacific, particularly around China, Japan, and Taiwan, where it inhabits shallow coastal reefs, estuaries, and seagrass beds.

Visual & Functional Appeal
Features a sleek, elongated body with bold marbled striping and cat-like barbels. Its nocturnal, gliding movements add elegance and mystery to large reef-style or lagoon tanks.

Purpose
Serves as a showpiece animal in advanced marine systems. Adds movement across the tank bottom and contributes to naturalistic benthic behavior displays.

Importance
A highly intelligent and long-lived species that encourages aquarists to build ecosystems around its needs. Inspires learning around ocean conservation and habitat design.

Included Resources
Requires at least a 180–300+ gallon tank with soft substrate (no sharp gravel), hiding areas, strong biological filtration, and chilled temperature stability. Protein skimmer and UV sterilizer are highly recommended.

Best Use Cases
Ideal for shark-specific marine setups, public or private aquaria, and dedicated lagoon-style tanks. Not suited for reef tanks with small or delicate fish or corals that sit low.

Conservation Context
Often bred in captivity for the aquarium trade, which relieves wild pressure. However, habitat degradation and overfishing in coastal regions still threaten native populations.

Ideal Aquatic Animals
• Other large, non-aggressive marine fish (e.g. tangs, groupers)
• Larger wrasses and marine catfish
• Avoid: small inverts, territorial triggers, puffers, or stinging corals

Region (A)
• Latitude: 23.6978° N
• Longitude: 120.9605° E
(Coastal Taiwan – coral reef and estuarine regions)

Region (B)
• Latitude: 30.5928° N
• Longitude: 114.3055° E
(Eastern China – Yangtze River mouth and offshore shallows)