Paddlefish

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Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Over there
Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I didn't know where to put it, but I was just curious how come I never see people with paddlefish on here? I am just fascinated by them and I see a lot of vids on youtube of people in other countries with them, but never here in America. Are they illegal here like snakeheads? Or are they just too difficult to care for? Thanks ahead of time guys


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Paddlefish aren't kept because of several factors.

First, they need a round tank. A squared off tank will cause them to damage their bill which can be fatal over time.

Second, unless they're raised from fry on pellets, they will only feed on plankton. Once they're large, they're nearly impossible to break.

Third, They get huge and grow unbelievably fast. These fish are one of the real champion growers out there; the farm I was working with saw growth of up to an inch a week.

As far as I can tell, they are legal to possess. They're just poorly suited to captivity unless the above factors are considered. The ones that I was going to introduce into the hobby would have been pellet trained. The Asian fish go for sale because the marketers buy them from Osage Catfisheries in the states or a few of their dependent farms in China. Once they're bought from OC, its up to the marketer who bought them to do whatever they want. No one stateside seems to feel that they're worth selling as pets here.

Another thing I'd like you to consider is this: how often do you actually see a paddlefish in those Asian keepers' tanks that are more than a few inches? If THEY can't keep them alive well, that's fairly telling IMO.
 
Chicxulub said:
Paddlefish aren't kept because of several factors.

First, they need a round tank. A squared off tank will cause them to damage their bill which can be fatal over time.

Second, unless they're raised from fry on pellets, they will only feed on plankton. Once they're large, they're nearly impossible to break.

Third, They get huge and grow unbelievably fast. These fish are one of the real champion growers out there; the farm I was working with saw growth of up to an inch a week.

As far as I can tell, they are legal to possess. They're just poorly suited to captivity unless the above factors are considered. The ones that I was going to introduce into the hobby would have been pellet trained. The Asian fish go for sale because the marketers buy them from Osage Catfisheries in the states or a few of their dependent farms in China. Once they're bought from OC, its up to the marketer who bought them to do whatever they want. No one stateside seems to feel that they're worth selling as pets here.

Another thing I'd like you to consider is this: how often do you actually see a paddlefish in those Asian keepers' tanks that are more than a few inches? If THEY can't keep them alive well, that's fairly telling IMO.
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Wow some Interesting things I learned off of this. Thanks for the info

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Andrew1002 said:
Wow some Interesting things I learned off of this. Thanks for the info

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Click to expand...

x2
 
Chicxulub said:
Paddlefish aren't kept because of several factors.

First, they need a round tank. A squared off tank will cause them to damage their bill which can be fatal over time.

Second, unless they're raised from fry on pellets, they will only feed on plankton. Once they're large, they're nearly impossible to break.

Third, They get huge and grow unbelievably fast. These fish are one of the real champion growers out there; the farm I was working with saw growth of up to an inch a week.

As far as I can tell, they are legal to possess. They're just poorly suited to captivity unless the above factors are considered. The ones that I was going to introduce into the hobby would have been pellet trained. The Asian fish go for sale because the marketers buy them from Osage Catfisheries in the states or a few of their dependent farms in China. Once they're bought from OC, its up to the marketer who bought them to do whatever they want. No one stateside seems to feel that they're worth selling as pets here.

Another thing I'd like you to consider is this: how often do you actually see a paddlefish in those Asian keepers' tanks that are more than a few inches? If THEY can't keep them alive well, that's fairly telling IMO.
Click to expand...

Wow! Thanks. I never did any research about them and didn't plan on ever keeping one just for sheer size but that was a lot of interesting info. One of the vids I saw was in some other country and the guy had thousands of them along with sturgeons, all babies, and they were all eating pellets. One of them was very interesting looking. I don't know if it was albino or leucistic but it was all white.


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MasterB said:
I see them from time to time around here but like what was already said, they get too big, fast. They look cool, would love to keep one if they stayed about 5lbs :)
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This is theoretically possible. In the same way that occasionally albino strains or other morphs pop up in captive bred fish thanks to the limited gene pool, there is a mutation that occasionally pops up in American paddlefish: dinks.

In the trade, occasionally the farms will find that they have specimens that don't get over about a foot long and a pound or so. These fish are normally culled because they aren't viable for the purposes the farms are breeding for. These fish are known in the trade as dinks and would theoretically be suitable for aquaria. The issue we run into is that they need to be fairly well grown out at the farm before they can tell what they have so getting a young dink would be fairly difficult, though I suppose not impossible.
 
I don't think it was genetics that's caused dinks. See how they come from a hatchery where they are usually kept with other thousands of paddlefish in same raceways. They will be always stunted but that doesn't meant they will stay small forever. So far no one had dink paddlefish live enough long beyond 5 years or more to see if they did grow or not.
 
MasterB said:
I see them from time to time around here but like what was already said, they get too big, fast. They look cool, would love to keep one if they stayed about 5lbs :)
Click to expand...

One would look good in your 300 gallon. :)
 
They do very well in large ponds with the correct pondmates(Nothing that eats fast, they eat very slowly)
They are not suitable for aquariums though because of their rostrum, as chicx said.
 
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