Anyone here keep any monster Bowfin? I'm growing out one that's around 9" now. Also i'm wondering about successful tankmates as well. I'm thinking about housing mine with 2 very large Oscars
Bowfin
- Thread starter Lord Viggo
- Start date
i personally have not kept them but i know that they can get incredibly large, around 40" i believe. And i also read on another thread that some people had issues with aggression so that would be something to watch for if you add more fish.
Aggresion depends on the fish u have. Some might be less aggressive while others can be a killing machine
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I have four Bowfins (2M & 2F) all 16" - 18" range, that have been growing out with three Oscars (Tiger 14" Red 14" & Lemon 11").
They actually play with one another!
To be honest, in the couple dozen Bowfin I have raised, with a decent number of species as tank mates, I have only had issue on two occasions where a tank mate was seriously attacked by a bowfin, and in both cases it was an isolated incident and an exception to the normal.
1. A sixish inch bowfin in my gar pond kept getting attacked by a similar sized Green Sunfish. After a month or so Grumpy got fed up and bit mean green in half. I have also had many Green sunfish that are ALL meanest fish that I have kept. (I had to separate the mean greens from my Red Belly P's. I was PISSED as they were to be food for the Piranha's not mutilators.) Dovi, Jaguar, Butti Tilapia all got terrorized by Green sunfish half their size!! |:-(
2. An 18" Male bowfin made me nervous when it started gently nudging a 7" florida gar. It actually would wrap it's mouth around the body, and not fully bite. I took no chances and re-homed the Gar.
I have also noticed that baby and Juvi. Bowfins are far more co-specifically aggressive and seriously mellow with age. Most Bowfin keepers will tell you that it is far more difficult to growout juvenile bowfins with other Amia Calva. They are both incredibly cannibalistic and brutally co-specifically aggressive until at least 12".
Every tank mate will learn to allow the Bowfins to take meat first at feeding time.
Oscars are specifically tremendous tankmates for Bowfin IMO due to there polar opposite diet preferences.
My Oscars hate most cut fish fillet and LOVE NLS & O.Show pellets. The Bowfins are luke warm at best with Pellets.
So far no challenge to date keeping juvenile Bowfin and Grass pickerel growing out together (September 2013 - present @ Similar sizes!)
They actually play with one another!
To be honest, in the couple dozen Bowfin I have raised, with a decent number of species as tank mates, I have only had issue on two occasions where a tank mate was seriously attacked by a bowfin, and in both cases it was an isolated incident and an exception to the normal.
1. A sixish inch bowfin in my gar pond kept getting attacked by a similar sized Green Sunfish. After a month or so Grumpy got fed up and bit mean green in half. I have also had many Green sunfish that are ALL meanest fish that I have kept. (I had to separate the mean greens from my Red Belly P's. I was PISSED as they were to be food for the Piranha's not mutilators.) Dovi, Jaguar, Butti Tilapia all got terrorized by Green sunfish half their size!! |:-(
2. An 18" Male bowfin made me nervous when it started gently nudging a 7" florida gar. It actually would wrap it's mouth around the body, and not fully bite. I took no chances and re-homed the Gar.
I have also noticed that baby and Juvi. Bowfins are far more co-specifically aggressive and seriously mellow with age. Most Bowfin keepers will tell you that it is far more difficult to growout juvenile bowfins with other Amia Calva. They are both incredibly cannibalistic and brutally co-specifically aggressive until at least 12".
Every tank mate will learn to allow the Bowfins to take meat first at feeding time.
Oscars are specifically tremendous tankmates for Bowfin IMO due to there polar opposite diet preferences.
My Oscars hate most cut fish fillet and LOVE NLS & O.Show pellets. The Bowfins are luke warm at best with Pellets.
So far no challenge to date keeping juvenile Bowfin and Grass pickerel growing out together (September 2013 - present @ Similar sizes!)
I had 10. Now I have 1. They all killed each other.
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i have i have one bowfin its around 10 inches to foot long pic was before it grew some
I keep my bowfin in a ten foot Indoor pond with 3 gator gar and a channel cat. They're all pretty friendly(no aggression what so ever) all the fish in there are about a foot or so long. As long as no one trys to mess with them they're fine
Dude, what's up???!!! Where u been? Haven't seen you in like a million years lol
I see the post about people keeping them w/ Oscars and I know they share habitat in the wild in Florida w/ them, but when you get a good look at the dentition on a bigger one, it's a wonder ANYTHING is safe in their presence
They gotta have teeth in the hundreds
I get on and off a lot depending on free time haha. But bowfin are usually a safe community fish, occasionally you see ones that are intolerant of others but usually they're passive.