# Paddlefish



## Moontanman (May 31, 2009)

I am currently keeping paddlefish, these fish are dwarfs created by the aquaculture process. I've had them for five months. I was shipped 12 fish, two were DOA, two died in a few days for unknown reasons, two died when a pump in a vat failed and went stagnate. The remaining 6 are doing great. See my video here...

YouTube - paddlefish75


----------



## WhiteGloveAquatics (Sep 3, 2009)

Nice video and fish.


----------



## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Cool. Can you take a closer shot?


----------



## Moontanman (May 31, 2009)

Paddlefish update, the paddlefish are still doing great and eating floating pellets. They swim all the time and every who sees them is fascinated, they are the most shark like freshwater fish i have ever seen. they have a skeleton made of cartilage like sharks, the fin placement is very similar to sharks even down to the upper lobe in the tail fin. 

As they swim around with their mouths open most people think they look most like little basking sharks. Great fish if you have a 120 gallon tank that needs a unique fish!


----------



## dan_vxr (Jun 9, 2011)

Your fish are cool! how big are they and what size will they grow too?


----------



## Moontanman (May 31, 2009)

dan_vxr said:


> Your fish are cool! how big are they and what size will they grow too?


My paddlefish are supposed to be dwarfed and shouldn't get any more than 12" or so, they are at around 10" now.


----------



## Oliver Wilmore (Jul 14, 2011)

This is really interesting and almost hard to believe! When I was a child my Dad took me to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans and I saw these- but they were about six feet long! Do you have any other information on how these were bred to this size?


----------



## Pigeonfish (Jun 23, 2011)

Real nice. Please keep us updated.


----------



## Moontanman (May 31, 2009)

Oliver Wilmore said:


> This is really interesting and almost hard to believe! When I was a child my Dad took me to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans and I saw these- but they were about six feet long! Do you have any other information on how these were bred to this size?


The breeder has assured me these are genetic dwarfs, their hatch mated are now 26"+ and weigh in at over 2 pounds. I am planning to build a large aquarium to house them, I've build several aquariums and these fish deserve a nice big tank all their own.


----------



## Moontanman (May 31, 2009)

latest video of the paddlefish feeding


----------



## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Paddle fish are very ancient fish and are living fossils like Sharks. I'm not sure they live anywhere else but in the Lower Missisippi River. I believe they use their Paddle to stire up bottom mud to find food.


----------



## Oliver Wilmore (Jul 14, 2011)

I read a little bit about them after this post. They are almost extinct in the Yangtze river in China, but in the US they are being reintroduced outside of the Mississippi river which I find very exciting. One of the rivers they have been introduced to runs near my college campus.


----------



## phil_n_fish (Nov 19, 2011)

I snagged a paddle fish in fort smith, AR. I was fishing at the bottom of a dam on the arkansas river


----------

