bowfin for me?

[mrwinkle]

i am no expert but i have a thread where i am keeping a bowfin 15"-16"and Florida gar 15"-16" together. It has been about 4 days now and i have seen them sitting on top of one another with no problems. They both were caught in the same area; I went back fishing the area where i caught those two and caught & released another bowfin and another FL Gar. So you may want to take that in consideration. I have had no issue of aggression yet but if you want mine to be guinea pigs i will keep you posted.

 

[xander]

thanks for the input winkle. although you might want to take solomon's advise into consideration as 4 days is not anything to go by. good luck with your combo though!

 

[E_americanus]

i am no expert but i have a thread where i am keeping a bowfin 15"-16"and Florida gar 15"-16" together. It has been about 4 days now and i have seen them sitting on top of one another with no problems. They both were caught in the same area; I went back fishing the area where i caught those two and caught & released another bowfin and another FL Gar. So you may want to take that in consideration. I have had no issue of aggression yet but if you want mine to be guinea pigs i will keep you posted.

it's good that that is working for you, but one must take into consideration several things. yours are wildcaught fishes which are still very much adapting to captivity...most fishes will not show their true colors when transferred from the wild as adults until much longer than 4 days...may be weeks. xander is considering captive-raised fishes, and starting them much smaller. a 16" bowfin can be quite a bruiser randomly and unpredictably, so smaller or weaker fishes should not be kept with them. on a side note, if you have kept a fish in captivity that you caught in the wild, you should NEVER release it back in to the wild. this can cause major issues with introduction of pathogens from large external parasites to viral pathogens. if you cannot maintain a fish that you caught from the wild, give it away or euthanize it, this is very important for the entire ecosystem overall. good luck with your fishes regardless--
--solomon

 

[mrwinkle]

it's good that that is working for you, but one must take into consideration several things. yours are wildcaught fishes which are still very much adapting to captivity...most fishes will not show their true colors when transferred from the wild as adults until much longer than 4 days...may be weeks. xander is considering captive-raised fishes, and starting them much smaller. a 16" bowfin can be quite a bruiser randomly and unpredictably, so smaller or weaker fishes should not be kept with them. on a side note, if you have kept a fish in captivity that you caught in the wild, you should NEVER release it back in to the wild. this can cause major issues with introduction of pathogens from large external parasites to viral pathogens. if you cannot maintain a fish that you caught from the wild, give it away or euthanize it, this is very important for the entire ecosystem overall. good luck with your fishes regardless--
--solomon

thanks for the info and that side note as well. This is a learning experience for me and as i mentioned before i will keep updates on the collaboration. Question What are the behavioral differences between the wildcaught specimens and the captiveraised specimens?

 

[screaminleeman]

thanks for that bit of info again! i seem to be learning much on the forum these past few days

i guess i wouldn't be attempting to keep them then...especially since they're costing $300++ a pop

Wow,

I got my six @ ~ 5" - 6" range for $20 each. I quickly lost one to predation, and one to internal Parasites. I was away this weekend and lost my third (measured 7") to unknown reason. Ammonia and Nitrites read zero and Nitrates 35 - 40ish. My well water starts at > 10!