Finally found some Bowfins available!

[screaminleeman]

After almost a year of seraching I came across a fellow MFK'er (SBUSE) that was able to collect a bunch for those of us not fortunate enough to have local access to them. I have to throw a major THANK YOU to Scott and let everyone see what a beautiful creature the Bowfin is. Anyone interested in them can now get them from Scott if they want. Scott did a better packaging job on his first attempt then the majority of professional online mail order fish farms that I have dealt with. Check these little monsters out! They came in eating on the first day along with the Florida Gars in the growout tanks!

 

[krichardson]

Really nice calvas.I've been tempted to contact sbuse about ordering some myself.Looks like you have two different tanks as I see two types of substrate.

 

[sbuse]

you are very welcome!! they look awesome in your tanks. i like the way the colors pop on the dark substrate. i just have them on natural sand. looks like you seperated the males and females, any particular reason or just came out that way? i got more if you want more my lfs deal fell through so i will be eager to move some more.

scott

krichardson i have several left that i need to move due to tank constrains. please feel free to talk with me about some. i can't do to much on the shipping side of things for price reduction, but i do a bit.

 

[screaminleeman]

Really nice calvas.I've been tempted to contact sbuse about ordering some myself.Looks like you have two different tanks as I see two types of substrate.

I have five growout tanks. One is a tiny 20G long that is only 10 or so inches off the ground and extremely difficult if not impossible for me to photograph at that level. The other growout is a preformed pond where only top view is accessible and again not great for picture taking. The 65G growout is for one of my original bowfins that is around 16" or so now.

I was hoping to do a major update in the media section, but was trying to wait until the full image uploader was working again on MFK. It is a pain to go through uploading one image at a time through the basic uploaded. I will try to post update pics of the newer gars when I have more time.

As for the subtrates, I have found that the white sand is horrible for their coloration and patterns and tends to "fade" the gars out. The gars in the darker subtrates look much nicer with sharper clearer patterns.

 

[screaminleeman]

you are very welcome!! they look awesome in your tanks. i like the way the colors pop on the dark substrate. i just have them on natural sand. looks like you seperated the males and females, any particular reason or just came out that way? i got more if you want more my lfs deal fell through so i will be eager to move some more.

scott

krichardson i have several left that i need to move due to tank constrains. please feel free to talk with me about some. i can't do to much on the shipping side of things for price reduction, but i do a bit.

Hey Scott,

The six Florida Gar in the tank with the white sand grew faster than the three that are in the tank with the black plant subtrate. I have kept Bowfin and Gar together before, however they are predatious. I was a little concerned with the male bowfins with the smaller gars in the black subtrate tank so I put the females and smallest male in the tank with the three smaller gar. The White subtrate gars are uber agressive and there has been no challenge from the larger males with the larger juvi. gars.

 

[sbuse]

i see thats what i figured. one thing i have noticed with the bowfins is that the closer they get to a feed day(eg the hungrier they get) the more nomadic aggressive they get. they seem to bite anything they bump into, granted it is a soft bite, but a bite none the less. they are with a 4-5" channel cat and a 4" busynose pleco with no attacks though. mainly seem to be agressive tward themselves and a few nips to my large catfish in the main display. i have a vid of the big tank in the media lounge.

seeing them on the dark rock is making me want to change out the natural sand in my 120 that will be my gar, fin and poly tank to my black sillica sand

 

[pO0p1500]

i would be interested in buying a Bowfin, i have looked everywhere and couldnt find any you are my last hope btw i live in michigan.

Sincerely, Adam

 

[FLESHY]

Scott is the man - beautiful calva btw.

 

[SePPii]

I caught about 15 large bowfins in a local pond over the summer... They were all between 15-22''. Thought about putting one in my tank but thought it would be a bad idea. The ones I caught had red and like a bright blue inside their mouth.

 

[SePPii]