Bowfin Species Profile

Wiggles92

Dovii
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Apr 25, 2009
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Author(s): Wiggles92 (Ryan Bing)
Photos by:
Edited, Arranged, and Referenced by
Wiggles92

*** All Information & Images Copyright 2011 Ryan Bing and www.MonsterFishKeepers.com OR used with permission. No material (listed above) may be reproduced without permission.

Species Information



Scientific Name:
Amia calva

Common Name(s):
Bowfin, dogfish, mudfish

Distribution:
North America: St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain drainage of Quebec and Vermont west across southern Ontario to the Mississippi drainage in Minnesota.

Description:
The bowfin is a tubular fish that has a prominent elongate dorsal fin and nostril tubercles as well as a scaleless head. These fish are facultative air-breathers and can use their modified gas bladder as if it were a lung to breathe air if need be.

Amia calva have three distinct pattern variations that correspond to the age and gender of the fish in question. Juvenile bowfins are typically brightly colored and have a yellow-ringed ocellus on the upper portion of the caudal peduncle. Adult male bowfins retain the yellow-ringed ocellus of the juvenile and are reasonably brightly colored as well; the males’ fins turn bright blue-green in the Spring. Adult female bowfins typically lose the yellow-ringed ocellus of the juvenile and are usually a drab brown in coloration.

Bowfins typically attain lengths of 21” in the wild, but individuals have been reported to be as long as 43”. Males typically are somewhat smaller than females. During the mating season, the male will construct and guard a nest (a depression made in aquatic vegetation) and will mate with several females. The male cares for the young and will sometimes brood them in his mouth.

Comments:
These fish are the only living member of the family Amiidae and are closely related to the gars of the family Lepisosteidae. These fish are often said to be closely related to snakeheads or even said to be snakeheads, but they are not closely related to snakeheads and definitely are not a species of snakehead.

Captive Care Guide

Average Captive Max Size:
14” – 20”

Average Captive Growth Rate:
Age: YOY
You can expect very rapid growth rates during the bowfin’s first few months of life which growth slows down considerably. Expect your bowfin to attain a length of at least 4” – 6” during the first six months with a length in excess of 12” being possible after the first year.

Age: Two years
Growth is much slower during the second year. Expect your bowfin to be at least 12” – 16” after the second year.

Age: Three years and up
Growth slows greatly from this point forward.

Suggested Husbandry:

Tank Size:
Follow the step up rule of thumb for a growing fish. For a single adult specimen, a 125 gallon aquarium (72” x 24” x 17”) is considered to be the bare minimum; a larger aquarium may be necessary should the bowfin be larger than the typical adult specimen.

The rule of thumb for minimum tank size when it comes to these fishes is for one to gauge what amount of space is comfortable for the fish using good sense, and ask questions when in doubt.

Water Parameters:
Bowfins are insensitive to most water conditions. One does not have to have much aeration as they are air breathers. A moderate pH is recommended, though others (whether notably low or high) can be tolerated. Remember to keep up on water changes and have abundant filtration in order to deal with the excessive waste left over by these predators.

Tankmates:
Bowfins often are not compatible tankmates. Some bowfins will cohabitate well with an assortment of tankmates such as gars and sunfish, but many are far too aggressive to be kept with other fishes besides other bowfins and even then there can be issues. One suggestion is to raise it with other fishes that you are not attached to until its temperament is well known. Be sure to watch for any aggression between the fish during the first few days in order to see if the fish can share their aquarium in relative peace. Avoid keeping it with silvery fish (characins, etc.) and slime-sucking fish (suckermouth catfish, etc.).

Diet:
Bowfins sometimes have a preference for live foods, so they should be given minnows (rosy reds, etc.) and/or earthworms until they accept other foods. Try giving them small pieces of fish fillet, market shrimp, or beef heart (preferably the fish or shrimp) in order to transition them to a prepared diet. You may also want to eventually try to get them to accept pellets in order to provide an even more balanced diet. Be sure to quarantine any live foods that you give your bowfin.

References:

Fishbase.org:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=2600&AT=bowfin

PrimitiveFishes.com:

http://www.primitivefishes.com/index_files/Page1919.htm

NANFA:

http://www.nanfa.org/captivecare/bowfin.shtml
http://www.nanfa.org/articles/actankbowfins.shtml

MFK Thread “Bowfin Care”:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...04-bowfin-care&p=835522&viewfull=1#post835522

Bond’s Biology of Fishes (3rd Edition) by Michael Barton
 

sbuse

Feeder Fish
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i currently have 3(2 males and 1 female) with 2 sa catfish, sa lungfish, silver arowanas, gar, bichirs, sunfish, smallmouth bass, dat and a channel cat. absolutely no aggression from them. they are in a 180gal growout. the bowfins are 7-11" and the other fish range from 5"-22". the aros are 12"-16". maybe this is not common, but these bowfins were captured at this size and have shown no aggresstion since introduction. they fish were captured from under a massive school of bullheads. also these fish have readily taken shrimp and other market seafoods from day one. i have seen this with 26 fish. just my experience to add to this profile on these amazing fish.
 
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krichardson

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It'd be nice if some bowfin owners would chime in with pictures of their fish....I would have but I no longer have mine.
 
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sbuse

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i have a vid thread going with some pics as well in the media. here are the pics of a male and female for the profile thread.
 
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Wiggles92

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Apr 25, 2009
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i currently have 3(2 males and 1 female) with 2 sa catfish, sa lungfish, silver arowanas, gar, bichirs, sunfish, smallmouth bass, dat and a channel cat. absolutely no aggression from them. they are in a 180gal growout. the bowfins are 7-11" and the other fish range from 5"-22". the aros are 12"-16". maybe this is not common, but these bowfins were captured at this size and have shown no aggresstion since introduction. they fish were captured from under a massive school of bullheads. also these fish have readily taken shrimp and other market seafoods from day one. i have seen this with 26 fish. just my experience to add to this profile on these amazing fish.
Interesting.

The aggression bit was extracted from a post by Richard (Pejelajarto/Polypterus) in the thread "Bowfin Care" that I listed in the references; apparently some bowfins are reasonably calm while others are super aggressive. The food bit is definitely something that needs added to the profile; I hadn't found a ton of cases of them taking foods such as seafood from the start.

EDIT: I almost forgot about the behavior that is being displayed in your video; they apparently sometimes stack on top of one another in the wild.
 

sbuse

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ya, i have found that they act very much like bichirs and gar. i have found that they will often seem to be hunting in packs. i have found several adults over 24" each in a 20' section of bulrushes doing an almost systematic hunting/feeding on the bullheads and sunfish in the same section. these bowfins i have were with around 150 other bowfins in the same size class underneath a road. they lay on the bottom just under a mass cloud of bullheads. i believe that they were using the bullheads for cover, and at the same time feeding on them. a very interesting discovery and could explain why they seem to disappear at this size i have. i will do some exploration on this idea to see if i can find more in other lakes using the bullhead schools like this group were.

another interesting fact is that i have found that they will also spawn in the same rushes that they seem to do the corralling of the sunfish. like they have a 'pack' territory. there is several pairs that spawn a few yards apart from each other in this section of rushes i am talking about.
 

Racersk

Piranha
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Apr 22, 2010
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Nice thread!

Having owned one for almost a year (recently sold-but not legally after I was schooled) I can see several items of note.

Feeding in an aquarium-start with earthworms and quarantined feeders I also had success with sand shrimp- but all live- mine would take nothing but live till about 6"-7" then I had good success with tilapia fillets and market shrimp, with the occasional feeder 1-2 times a month (medium feeders). Mine tried pellets, but mostly spit them out as they just 'weren't right'...Another 4 months of keeping and I would have converted to Massivores.

A 2' width tank is mandatory for life. 18" won't cut it as this fish spooks and launches easily and quickly. 180 or the 150 wide is a minimum requirement...

Under 12" this fish will get bullied quite easily-think gentle giant. Until it realizes that it can eat sunfish, they will bully it. Same with any other typically agro fish-The bowfin is a pushover till it gains size and confidence.

These are pack fish. In the wild they feed much like Aripima- in groups. once the mature and grow big enough they hunt alone, but they prefer the company of like tankmates-mine palled up with a P Afer (marbled) knife. The feel more comfortable if there are other like mided preditors.

These fish size up other fish-too bog, don't touch. mouth sized, your food.


This is all I can think of-if there are any details I left out feel free to PM or ask in this thread(subscribed).
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112932842153629466351/albums/5595962200297202593

 
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King-eL

Polypterus
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Nov 28, 2008
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My 18"+ male bowfin. Racersk's former bowfin.

20" female bowfin.


Both of them are in my 375g tank. The first time I added the male it challenged all my snakeheads to a fight but nothing serious was done as they just flared at each other. 2 weeks later I added a female bowfin which is much bigger but skinner and they started to flared at each other. Some biting and chasing were done but again nothing fatal. Both fish are now swimming right next to each other and pile together when they rest. My male will always fallow the female whenever the female swims around. Both fish are very active too and will only rest when they are full. My female bowfin seems a bit mellow and just ignore anyone but the male will always knows when it's feeding time and begs for food. Will even strike up to grab the prawn off my fingers. I also have a 13" male bowfin which seems to be doing fine but always stays away from the larger bowfins. This little guy is also a beggar as it waggles like a puppy dog whenever it see me carrying a silver shiny bowl. It knows that it's feeding time. It ignores me when I just sit and watch carrying a coffee mug.

I once ordered a group of 20 baby bowfins at 1.5" and they were very sensitive. They grew fast and hit 4" in a month. 2 months at they hit 6" then when it reach 8"it grew 1-1.5" per month they hit 12"-13" and slow down. However from those 20 bowfin I only managed to grew 4 of them and the other were sold. Some of them died when young just about a week when I got them. Some died from being eaten by other bowfin as I noticed young bowfin will eat each other when you don't constantly feeding them. When they were young, I feed them with black worms, frozen bloodworms and lil' tiny chopped shrimps. At 4", I stopped feeding them worms as they tend to developed bloat and have a hard time swimming. They were mainly feeding prawns at that time till they slowly learn to eat hikari floating arowana sticks and hikari massivore delite. At 8" they will eat just about anything and were much more hardy and aggressive.
 

docturtle91b

Gambusia
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Nov 4, 2011
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When wild caught as juveniles what is the best way to set these fish up? What have you guys had luck with?
 
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