Paddlefish!

[Moontanman]

A week ago i received some baby paddlefish from a breeder I know. they are very shark like and so far fairly easy to keep. here are some pics.

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the focus, i can't seem to get my camera to focus on them correctly.

[skyhook]

This fishes show up at the local aquarium stores occasionally. I've the impression these fish isn't easy, as it seems like a coldwater fish, and I'm in the tropics. It also grows to huge size. What do you feed it? I've not keep them before.

[Moontanman]

They are quite adaptable as far as water temps go and even water quality for that matter. They are not as hard to keep as i had been told but I think they are going to be rather boring, very little personality so far. The require an open tank with no decorations to speak of, i have them in bare tank with a fine sand bottom. They will require a very big tank eventually, these will probably end up at the college in alcohol after I am finished with them.

[Moontanman]

The paddlefish are doing well, feeding now mostly on floating pellets and still a few live daphnia every few days as my daphnia cultures wind down for the summer. So far two were DOA and two have died due to lack of vigor or just not eating. The eight remaining fish are growing and they feed very aggressively. I plan to transfer them to a 75 gallon (about 280 liters) aquarium in a couple of weeks. I have a short video of them on facebook and I plan to see I can put a video of them on u-tube.

 

Paddlefish are survivors of an ancient line that predates the Coelacanth, very similar to sharks and chimeras.

[Moontanman]

The paddlefish are still doing well, i have become enthralled with them, so very cool as fish go, they are beginning to develop some real personality and are very active. to see a short video of the paddlefish go here...

 

http://www.facebook.com/michael.hissom#!/video/video.php?v=1372520187046

[rigney]

Naaa!, you don't wanna pickle them puppies. When they get too big for the tank, either turn 'em loose in the "Fear" or eat them. Anyhow, you probably have a few "low landers" that sneaked up some of the streams and rivers that flow into the cape area. I've heard tell they're good eatin', just never tried one myself. If you put them in the river, they'll turn south and slow down again. Your, (their) water in the tank is just too clean!

Edited July 12, 2010 by rigney

[Moontanman]

Naaa!, you don't wanna pickle them puppies. When they get too big for the tank, either turn 'em loose in the "Fear" or eat them. Anyhow, you probably have a few "low landers" that sneaked up some of the streams and rivers that flow into the cape area. I've heard tell they're good eatin', just never tried one myself. If you put them in the river, they'll turn south and slow down again. Your, (their) water in the tank is just too clean!

 

It would be illegal to put them in the Cape Fear, paddlefish are not native to the Atlantic Coast of North America, they only occur in the Mississippi River and it's tributaries. Shit would hit the fan for sure if one was caught in the Cape Fear River! They'd trace it right to me since I am the only person with these fish in a private aquarium. You can't get by with anything these days...

 

Paddlefish are supposed to be good eating but they are farmed for their eggs for Caviar. One fish can yield several pounds of eggs and at the going rate for caviar that is a lot of cash, lol....

 

The common name for these fish in some parts of the USA is spoonbill catfish, of course they are not catfish but they do have the slick scaleless skin of a catfish...

[Moontanman]

WOW I just fed my paddlefish some daphnia and as watched them feed I saw one swoop down and grab a black banded sunfish and swallow it! Evidently our mild mannered paddlefish are not so mild or mannered! The paddlefish was about 5" and the sunfish was about 1", I wonder what an adult paddlefish would do to a school of minnows, or a school of shad? I've noticed what looked like the paddlefish lunge at an otto a few times but he missed so badly I figured it was just a fluke. I wonder what adult paddlefish would do with a school of minnows or shad? I guess filter feeding is relative to the size of the particles being filtered

[Sayonara]

With regard to photos, it's likely your camera's autofocus is trying to lock on to faint reflections on the side of the tank.

 

This is difficult to get around with compact cameras, but you could try getting hold of a circular polarising filter (Cirpol) for an SLR and experiment with this in front of the lens. One of the jobs of a cirpol is to reduce the effect of reflections prior to the light hitting the imaging sensor.

[Moontanman]

Thanks Sayonara, I've managed to get some better shots by moving the camera back away from the glass and using zoom. I want to make a 185 gallon tank out of some old panes of float glass i have....

 

The fish are demonstratively smaller than their hatch mates in the ponds of the fish farm i got them from. My fish are 6" max and the average of the farmed fish are 15" plus and growing fast, mine have almost stopped already....

[Moontanman]

Here is a u-tube video of my paddlefish

 

 

I think I need some help here guys and gals....

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2010 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

I'm giving a talk tonight at the local University (UNCW Marine Center) about the paddlefish, I have 20 minutes alloted to me, I'm taking one of the paddlefish with me in a cooler as a visual aid, I've generated some local interest in my paddlefish, at least one PHD of marine biology is going to be there along with a couple grad students and 15 or 20 hobbyists. I can talk for hours about almost anything that interests me but this time it's a little bit different. I'm presenting some new info that isn't being received very well in some circles, pet theories being stepped on, that sort of thing. Many of my observations directly contradict long held beliefs about these fish, wish me luck guys!

[padren]

Let us know how it goes! Out of curiosity, what theories are being shaken up? Are you pulling a Robert Langdon in the world of paddlefish?

[Moontanman]

The talk went quite well, thanks for asking, my audience was enthralled by the live paddlefish I brought as a prop. Most of the disagreements center around commercial exploitation of paddlefish but some are about paddlefish behavior. Paddlefish behavior is not well known, much of it is based on assumptions rather than observation. The main problem is between paddlefish ranchers and bass fishermen, bass fishermen think the paddlefish compete with largemouth bass for food so they oppose stocking paddlefish in lakes and reservoirs even though in many cases this would just be restoring paddlefish to their native range.

 

The bass fishermen have millions of dollars to help them influence the state governments since they pay fees and licenses. paddlefish ranchers are relatively poor and have little influence. sadly the behavior i have observed backs up the bass fishermen who I think have far too much influence on what fish are stocked where, to the extent that large mouth bass are often stocked far outside their native range to satisfy the fishermen while oppose paddlefish being repatriated to their natural range. I have doubts about paddlefish being an effect predator of small fish or even competing with small forage fish for plankton since paddlefish are pelagic and would seldom feed in the enclosed spaces baby fish or forage fish feed.

 

So far my observation of paddlefish eating other fish is explosive in this small arena, also i have yet to observe other assumed paddlefish behaviors like using their paddle to stir up the bottom sediment so they can feed on small bethnic crustaceans. They avoid the bottom almost absolutely staying in the mid to upper regions of the water. i think my observations of paddlefish eating other fish might be an artifact of confinement but it is difficult to really be sure. My own observation seems to indicate the paddle is used for more than sensory input and is probably used to create lift when the fish opens it's huge mouth to filter feed to keep from nose diving from the drag created by the open mouth. i have also observed they quickly catch on to being confined and do not beat themselves to death against the sides of their container as "common knowledge" has always claimed. I have also seen aggressive/domination type behavior that mirrors the warning behavior of sharks when they encounter each other. Only one marine biologist showed up for my talk but he was impressed by my observations and is setting up a large aquarium so he can try and observe them as well.

 

I will be donating one to him and three more to the local state run public aquarium at Fort Fisher NC. I almost have the 75 gallon tank set up for the other four i intend to keep for further observation... I also have so ideas about the similarity of the electro-sensory mechanisms of the paddle and the sensors of sharks.

Edited August 19, 2010 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

I partially set up my 75 gallon aquarium today, I used 40 pounds of black sand, Tahitian Moon Sand, about 1 inch over the bottom of the tank. I filled the tank with well water run through a regular home water softener. The water, as usual had a very strong odor of HS, I added a quart of regular H2O2 and the odor dissipated. i added one cup of marine aquarium salt and 1/2 cup of calcium chloride to compensate for the extreme softness of the water. I am aerating the water for 24 hours before adding filtration or fish. I'll put up a you tube video of the fish in their new home in a few days... I'll add some sacrificial fish for 24 hours before adding the paddlefish....

Edited August 22, 2010 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

As I have been saying in my thread about keeping paddlefish I just set up a 75 gallon tank for the paddlefish, last night i put the Jump rock in the tank, this morning he was comatose on the bottom and he died after being put back in his old tank. The water parameters i control are the same or very similar in the 75 as the 30 gallon tank he came from, about 6 hours and he was dead! what could have killed him? The real kicker is that gambusia in the tank are doing fine and show no signs of stress. That jump rock was one of my all time favorite fish, he was a great fish I put $40 worth of black sand in the tank just so he would show off his colors. What could have killed him that wouldn't effect the gambusia? No other fish are in the tank yet, just a couple of gambusia... That jump rock was a tough fish, he had been through some really bad outdoor conditions before i got him inside several months ago... I am heart broken....

 

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=367

 

 

I think I solved the mystery, when I added the H2O2 to take away the HS smell i made a weak solution of sulphuric acid, the pH of the water must be very low. Gambusia can live in very low pH water while the Jumprock comes from mountain streams with a neutral to slightly alkaline pH. so.... death by low pH! I need to get some pH test strips for sure!

Edited August 24, 2010 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

Here is a new video of the paddlefish in the new 75 gallon tank.

 

 

[Moontanman]

Ok guys! Big opportunity for anyone who has a desire for paddlefish! The guy i got mine from has some available for shipping. This is a very unusual opportunity, he has several "dinks" left over out of his usual crop of fish and is going to sell them. They have 3 to 5 inch dinks, $30 dollars each I'm not sure what shipping will be but he is willing to ship them second day. As you can see from this thread they are relatively easy to keep if you have a large aquarium. PM me for pertinent info if you want one of these fish.

[Moontanman]

I have three paddlefish remaining alive at this point, i lost two to avian predators when I put them in a 6500 gallon outdoor pool. But I moved three months ago and the water here at the new house is terrible, one of the paddlefish just rolled over and died immediately after being put in the new water the remaining three were stressed pretty badly but have survived and now are doing well. A note on paddlefish feeding behavior, mine are still eating small fish when they can get them, their efforts are not as successful as most large predators but they will grab and swallow small fish if they are given a chance.

 

The paddlefish started out exciting only due to their rarity and the oddity of seeing them swimming around in a tank but they are growing on me and i intend to dedicate a large aquarium to their care as soon as possible.

[JohnB]

Interesting. To be frank the first thing I thought of when seeing them was "Goblin shark".

 

I notice that their swimming calmed down when placed into the larger tank. I wonder why.

[Moontanman]

Interesting. To be frank the first thing I thought of when seeing them was "Goblin shark".

 

A friend of mine who studies goblin sharks agrees with you, she says paddlefish resemble goblin sharks and chimeras, paddlefish do have a similar primitive spiral valve gut and are related to both sharks and sturgeons but the relationship hasn't been determined genetically yet as far as I know.

 

I notice that their swimming calmed down when placed into the larger tank. I wonder why.

 

Actually that's probably an artifact of the camera and the size of the tank, the tank is significantly larger in the last videos and the fish have to swim further to find barriers, makes the swim look less frantic but they swim consistently at (at least to my eyes and I look at them every day) a similar pace and never stop.

[Marat]

Moontanman: I was interested by your remark that after having kept some paddlefish for a while you had a number of observations to report which contradicted established theory about these fish. This reminded me of my observation when I was a child that earwigs fight each other using their back pincers as weapons. About 20 years after observing that I was stunned to see a scientific journal article debating whether earwigs ever use their back pincers as weapons. It's amazing what the hobbyist sees rather than the professional sometimes.

[Moontanman]

Moontanman: I was interested by your remark that after having kept some paddlefish for a while you had a number of observations to report which contradicted established theory about these fish. This reminded me of my observation when I was a child that earwigs fight each other using their back pincers as weapons. About 20 years after observing that I was stunned to see a scientific journal article debating whether earwigs ever use their back pincers as weapons. It's amazing what the hobbyist sees rather than the professional sometimes.

 

 

Hobbyists have provided much knowledge in many areas of science, astronomy comes to mind right away. But many times things hobbyists see in animals in captivity is written off as an artifact of captivity, as in paddlefish do not eat other fish so my captive paddlefish must be changed in some way by captivity, I know part of this to be a totally false assumption based on prey fish not being found in the stomach contents of wild paddlefish but I have observed paddlefish eating other fish, often quite large fish in comparison to the paddlefish. I have discussed this with professionals and some have taken my observations seriously and others have said things like it being an artifact of captivity to actually calling me a lier with an agenda, all i can do is observe as neutrally as possible to the best of my ability at this point but in captivity paddlefish not only eat other fish they actively pursue them, this i can say with total confidence.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

New video of my paddlefish, now one year old, on my you tube channel

 

Edited June 24, 2011 by Moontanman

[Moontanman]

Paddlefish news!

 

Lots of things have happened since I first posted this thread. I lost two more paddlefish, one to brown blood disease and one to being washed out of an outdoor vat by heavy rain.

 

The remaining paddlefish is doing well in my basement but today I sprayed poison for fleas in my basement and I am worried the vapors might kill him.

 

I have observed many things from my paddlefish, I have seen them stir up organisms like live blood worms from the bottom but not with their paddles. he will not touch dead blood worms or any other dead food that is not floating.

 

I routinely feed my paddlefish feeder guppies now, he slowly but surely catches them in the 300 gallon swimming pool i have him in. The kiddie wading pool is perfect for him and he loves to swim into the current made by the filter pump.

 

He is pretty good at catching small crayfish and ghost shrimp, but small fish are his specialty, he slow swims around them until they are all in a close group them he lunges into the group to swallow the feeder guppies. He goes through about 100 of them a month. he is 10" long, his hatch mates are in the 24 to 30 inch range by now.

 

He still eats floating pellets well and ignores any fish on the bottom but top swimmers are in trouble. Anything alive interests him, i think he has complex electric sensors on his paddle. I would love to see his reaction to an electric fish like an elephantnose fish....

 

Now if he will just survive the poison spray in the basement...