Raising Young Bowfin

[centralohio17]

Hi all,

I am not very active on this website but have recently acquired some young bowfin. They are about in inch to 1.5 inches long. I am starting this thread to hopefully gather more information on how to raise them successfully as I have had some losses. I expected some losses but I am hoping to limit them as much as I can. Here is the info regarding them and the tank.

20 gallon tank, I have 14 gallons of water in it. I change 3-5 gallons a day and add the appropriate amount of conditioner
I have a filter and bubbler in it
I have a heater but it gets the tank to 74 degrees, when I turn the heater off it gets down to about 67-68 degrees. Not sure which is better?
I feed them two cubes of bloodworms in the morning and in the evening

I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any experience raising bowfin from this size? Can you offer any insight? I have talked to two people I trust very much and they suggested more frequent water changes (the 3-5 gallon water changes began after their suggestion) and more frequent feeding (I changed from 1 bloodworm cube in the morning and evening to two in the morning and evening).

Any advice is welcome and a discussion is encouraged!!

 

[centralohio17]

xenacanth9 I've read a few threads and you seem to have some knowledge on bowfins. Any insight here?

 

[jjohnwm]

I've raised multiple bowfins, although I never had the opportunity to start with any as small as those that you have.

They were an easy fish to keep; enthusiastic feeders, and not particularly tricky to switch over to pellets or freeze-dried krill. Those that I had started at around 3 inches, and at that size were quite prone to cannibalism, including attempts to eat siblings not noticeably smaller than they were. This usually resulted in the loss of both fish; but the tendency seemed to lessen as they grew. By the time they were 5-6 inches in length, they had pretty much outgrown that nasty habit...or perhaps it was more accurate to say that the survivors had developed some ability to safely gauge the size of potential meals. They were always very enthusiastic feeders, very predatory; but otherwise they tended to ignore fish too large to be swallowed whole. They ate the same pellets, krill, earthworms, frozen bait fish and carnivore-formula gel foods that I offered their tankmates.

Mine lived mostly in heated tanks at around 75F, but also did very well in unheated water that dropped down to 55-60-ish F in winter. They were native to the area where I grew up (southern Ontario) so temperature wasn't a huge concern. If I were to keep them again, it would be in unheated, room-temperature or cooler water.

They were not frequently targeted by anglers, and they have very poor quality flesh for human consumption...but they are a ton of fun to catch on rod and line.

Extremely interesting and hardy fish; unrelated to but very similar overall to snakeheads in appearance, although much less aggressive in behaviour. They should be a popular and commonly-kept fish, but since they aren't forbidden by law many keepers have no interest in them; most people only want what they can't have.