In South Africa the sand shark is called the ragged tooth shark. And the name fits the shark too. It's teeth jut out of it's jaw when opened. Although most of the tooth is inside the sand tiger is a fierce looking shark. Growing up to about 11 feet and can weigh up to about 700 pounds. Their usual length is 6 to 7 feet and can weigh up to 200 to 250 pounds.
The sand tiger feeds on mostly smaller fish which it's teeth are made for. Large specimens of the shark have been taken with large amounts of fish inside of their bellies. Some of the sand tigers have had has much as 100 pounds of fish inside them.
Russel J. Coles, a fisherman, was an eyewitness on the sharks strange behavior. He talked about the similar behavior to hammerheads. "They occasionally arrive in large schools." This also what the hammerheads do often. Coles, who was a fisherman who fished off the coast of Cape Lookout in North Carolina. He said that he once saw a school of a hundred or more sand tigers surround a school of blue fish and at the same instant they attacked the whole school. "I once had a whole net of blue fish when a school of sand tigers attacked the net and almost destroying the net." He said that it happened again except that this time they destroyed the net. "I killed about twenty of them with a harpoon and lance. Their average length was in slightly in excess of eight feet.
From what you have heard of this shark it would seem that aquariums would not like this shark. But actually aquariums really like this shark and they usually have this shark in their aquariums. The reason aquariums like them is because this shark is fearsome looking and since some of its jaws are functional it gives the look that most people think that sharks have. Also sand tigers can live long periods of time in aquariums. It can live several years in an aquarium and it may also live in it for about 10 years. Most sharks do not live that long in captivity. Sand tigers also like aquariums in a way because in captivity they will constantly swim around the tank and do not mind getting a fraction of the food that they usually get in the wild. One 11 foot long sand tiger that weighed about 300 pounds ate only 170 to 200 pounds of fish yearly. It did this by eating about 48 pounds of fish on some months and in other months ate only 3 to 4 pounds of fish.
Many people recognize this shark because of its prong like teeth. Researchers also have ways of recognizing this shark. Its first and second dorsal fins, the pelvic and anal fins are all about the same length. They also have other ways of recognizing this shark but these are the main ones that they will use.
In the summer of 1918 three fishermen caught 1,900 sand tigers off the south shore of Cape Cod, Nantucket . Although the sand tiger has a great abundance its feeding habits are not known. This shark is not a man eater but it is responsible for a unprovoked attack on a swimmer in the United States. There have been many more attacks off the coast of Australia also.