My experience with them is atypical at best. I feed my paddlefish on small floating pellets, they will occasionally take tiny fish but not until they are larger, Daphnia magna are pretty much the perfect food for them. They will not take food from the bottom but I have seen him swim along a path and then go back to collect live blood worms he had stirred up.. I was lucky enough to obtain a "dink" it is a fish from aquaculture that is smaller than usual due to some genetic defect or developmental problem. mine is about 10" long after two years. His normal hatch mates are 24" long by now at least.