Help with baby bowfins.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
OscarBowfin;1790693; said:
My LPS just got in some baby Bowfin and I bought some too. I put them in my new 125 gallon tank and they were my reason for just joining MFK.
Bowfin (Amia calva) are the last species left of their family. There is only one Bowfin species alive today. They are native to my area (MS & TN) and I have caught them while fishing and accidentally seine netted them while catching turtles for a biology research project. I had never seen the juveniles with the orange markings except in a book (The Fishes of Tennessee) but I did recognize them in the shop. They were not labeled and I had to inquire about a price, and I got mine for $9.99 each.
I'll try feeding mine some shrimp. So far I have offered earthworms and fed them some tiny (1") largemouth bass that I collected in a local pond.
I'm looking forward to seeing them grow.
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they grow pretty quick, ive only had mine for a few weeks and they already put on about an inch.

one has alot better pattern then the other, so im wondering if i got a male and female.

very smart little guys, and they love shrimp...

ill get some pics up soon, but its hard since they never stand still...

sweet pick up, how big are urs?
 
Mine are only about 3 inches. I've now stocked the 125 gallon tank with several other native species including small Bluegill, Green Sunfish, Topminnows, and Yellow Bullhead Catfish. I caught all of these in a little creek about a mile from my house. The Bowfin swim non-stop and seem a bit blind. Basically they don't seem to respond to anything but smell. The other fish respond visually to food and me when i walk by the tank, but the Bowfin appears oblivious. The Green Sunfish have nipped at the Bowfin's tail a bit, but he seems to be OK and feeds very aggressively. I am hand feeding him with tongs to make sure he eats. I think he would lose out to the faster sunfish if I didn't do this. I think he'll be big enough to eat the small ones soon... they better watch out.
 
Dasmopar;1717289; said:
My LFS got in 3 baby bowfins (3") and I told them to hold them for me. I have a 220gal tank with a bunch of baby monsters but the bowfins are prolly alittle to small to deal with my 5 to 6" arow right now so I'm gonna trade in my exodons and put the bowfins in the 29g tank for awhile to get them alittle bigger before joining the mob in the big tank.

My questions are how fast do they grow? What should I be feeding them to power grow them? Best water temp for fast growth? Any other advise you may have for me would be apprecitated also.
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One thing you might want to think about is that bowfin carry a huge parasite load. they are subject to numerous worms and such, much greater than the average wild caught fish. A good internal parasite medication might result in a much healthier longer lived fish.
 
Must have pics!!!!!
 
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