I kept several of them for three years, great fish, really need a pond or large vat, some called "dinks" are available from some sources and seem to stay less than 12" but still require a very large tank. They are far more predatory that many people think, mine fed prolifically on minnows, often herding them together into what resembled a bait ball and lung feeding into the ball. They also ate small sunfish and occasionally tried to swallow each other. They are kind misleading in their predatory behavior. They swim around seeming to ignore small fish like sunfish and soon the sunfish stop reacting to the paddlefish only to be scooped up in a pass that is very quick. Mine ate small crayfish and live shrimp, somehow managing to eat them after dark. They do eat floating pellets and raise a lot of hell at the surface as they scoop them up. Great fish if you have very large tanks, vats or pools to keep them in.