This means the aquarium should be at least 22 inches wide and 44 to 55 inches long for a 22-inch nurse shark. If it were a newborn nurse shark, which is about 11 inches at birth, this aquarium would be just wide enough. However, the shark could outgrow the aquarium's width in less than a year, and its length in just over two years using my formula for minimum aquarium size. Many people purchase these sharks thinking there will be a public aquarium eager to receive an overgrown pet as a gift.
Public aquariums are usually well stocked with specimens and have little room for additional sharks.
Although nurse sharks are wonderful and interesting animals, I do not recommend them for the home aquarium. But, there are smaller shark species that are ideally suited to just such confined living quarters. These sharks are adapted to life in tight quarters. They also have slender, supple bodies and bear a closer resemblance to eels than to most other sharks. I have seen four species of hemiscyllid sharks in the marine aquarium trade, two of which are regularly encountered.