Paddlefish
- Thread starter c_jase_d
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Just to add something about classification, paddlefish ARE sturgeons. They are highly specialized and unusual, but they are sturgeons.
I have once seen one in an public indoor pond, but after some weeks it wasn´t there anymore. I have also read a report of a fish breeder which had young paddlefish and young salmons, and the paddlefish decimated the salmons dramatically by eating them (I have to add that the salmons were not that much smaller than the paddlefish). They will also learn to eat floating pellets, so it is probably much easier to feed them than many people think. But still this is surely no aquarium fish. Possibly a candidate for big ponds, but not for tanks, except for very small specimens.
I have once seen one in an public indoor pond, but after some weeks it wasn´t there anymore. I have also read a report of a fish breeder which had young paddlefish and young salmons, and the paddlefish decimated the salmons dramatically by eating them (I have to add that the salmons were not that much smaller than the paddlefish). They will also learn to eat floating pellets, so it is probably much easier to feed them than many people think. But still this is surely no aquarium fish. Possibly a candidate for big ponds, but not for tanks, except for very small specimens.
Paddlefish are not sturgeons. Paddlefish are in the family Polyodontidae, and sturgeons are in the family Acipenseridae. They share the order Acipenseriformes. Thus, paddlefish and sturgeons are related, but very different fishes.
Saying paddlfish are sturgeons is like saying darters are cichlids.
Saying paddlfish are sturgeons is like saying darters are cichlids.
They are very closely related compared to other fish, even if they may look very freakish. Originally it was even thought they were a kind of freshwater shark, only later it turned out that their closest relatives are sturgeons. And even if they don´t look at first like sturgeons, they have still a lot of anatomical similarities, like the cartilagunous skeleton for example.
Their (the Chinese and American paddlefish) closest living reletatives are sturgeons. They're still only linked at the order level, which is pretty high up on the taxanomic ladder. Most likely they had many other fishes in that order that were more like paddlefish, but have been long extinct.
Your statement that paddlefish are sturgeons was just wrong and I wanted to correct it.
Your statement that paddlefish are sturgeons was just wrong and I wanted to correct it.
Yes I know the giant chinese paddlefish is the closest relative of the north american paddlefish, but I already included it when I wrote paddlefish in general. But you are correct, paddlefish and sturgeons are only sister-taxons. The first known fossil paddlefish are already more than 65 Million years old, and surey they splitted off the original branch very early.
