This is the moment a shark called Phin performs ‘dolphin tricks’ at a family home in Florida.

Alyssa Ruiz, 18, who filmed the video, told Newsflash: “The shark is a California smooth-hound, his name is Phin (short for dolphin), and we’ve had him for a couple of years.”

The smooth-hound (Mustelus mustelus) is a genus of sharks from the Triakidae family and he has been with the Ruiz family since October 2017.

He got his name for his ability to perform dolphin-like tricks, as seen in videos recorded by Alyssa last week at their home in South Florida.

The teenager, called Aly by friends and family, said that her dad, William Ruiz, 48, who is a huge fan of anything to do with the ocean, built a huge tank at the family home to keep their pet sharks, now totalling five.

She added that the tank allows them to grow, and that it took three months to complete.

She said: “It was always a dream for Phin to have a shark tank.”

The giant aquarium contains 22,712 litres of water and is 2.5 metres at its deepest point and 1.2 metres at the shallowest.

Alyssa told Newsflash: “He acts like that because when he was a baby he had a parasite that left him with some neurological damage. It affects some of his behaviour, but he’s still able to live as any other shark would. It mostly just affected how he swims and he just gets the zoomies more often than other sharks would.”

Zoomies refers to the sudden burst of energy in which an animal speeds backwards and forwards for apparently no reason.

According to Alyssa, other than copying a dolphin’s ability to swim on its tail across the water, Phin behaves like a normal shark and his favourite foods are squid, shrimp and fish.

There are now a total of five sharks in the tank and the Ruiz family said they only swim in there on special occasions to not stress them.

Alyssa, whose family originally comes from Cuba, is studying at Barry University in Miami in Florida and she is majoring in nursing.