Don't let your bowfin gorge on borderline rotten fish...

[Hao]

Thank you guys for these visuals. This is great. Some bowfins have this pronounced reticulated cool pattern! I wonder if it is geography/genetics. Ours were like the two of the drabbest in the DrownedFish's pics above. The green is totally awesome but can't be aimed at or counted on as this is the breeding, transient color, it will not keep. Kind of the same as Chinese High Fin shark/loach get intense red/purple for the breeding, then back into the drab oblivion

Is Rehoboth Aquatics still owned and run by Toyin? The Africa specialist? (I bought fish from him back in 2015.) If so, when did he switch/augment with the USA natives?

Yeah Toyin still around. He also brings in South American fish as well as the usual African. He's been doing USA natives for awhile. But most of those are sent overseas.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

jpcampbells 8 year old passed: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/lost-my-bowfin-had-it-8-years.745432/

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

NANFA - North American Native Fishes Association | This is a video I took a couple years ago of a “massive” Bowfin | Facebook

This is a video I took a couple years ago of a “massive” Bowfin. At a wetland preservation, In Fort Wayne Indiana

www.facebook.com

Testing to see if this link works as fort wayne ind is not far from where I am at this is the typical markings I see on our bowfin

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The site and the video act a bit funny but both are viewable by me. Thank you. Cool specimen, pretty markings and the obviously green pectoral fins plus it is not afraid of humans gives away it is in heat, I presume.

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Yup its the start of spawning colors

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Another disastrous dabble into bowfins. 4/4 dead.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The latest in the bowfin taxonomy went over my head. Totally missed it 4 years ago.

*****

Based on a 2022 genetic study, the bowfin (Amia calva) was split from being considered a single species into two: the Ruddy Bowfin (Amia calva) and the Eyetail Bowfin (Amia ocellicauda). The Eyetail (or Emerald) Bowfin, originally named in 1836, was resurrected as a valid species found in the Great Lakes and Mississippi basin.

Amia calva (Ruddy Bowfin): Commonly found in the southern United States.

Amia ocellicauda (Eyetail/Emerald Bowfin): Often found in the Great Lakes region and northern parts of the Mississippi basin.

The two species are hard to distinguish visually, but A. ocellicauda (Eyetail Bowfin) is characterized by a distinct black spot at the tail base, often surrounded by yellow (the "eyespot"), and, during the breeding season, males show intense green-blue coloration.

*****

Thanks to our peer Logan from Ohio for cluing me in:

"The ones you have must be Ruddy Bowfin, as they are the only species found in Florida, and range along the Atlantic slope. The Eyetail Bowfin ranges elsewhere. Much like Micropterus salmoides and Micropterus nigricana, Rubby and Eyetail are morphologically identical, but genetically distinct."

Eyetail caught by Logan and his friend in OH: