Who can tell me about the American Paddlefish?
- Thread starter Patatl3
- Start date
I live in the native range and they get huge and eat invertebrates. Limbs plants and rocks should be included in the decor
I grow paddlefish for living and have personally been giving Moontanman instructions on keeping them in a home aquaria environment. His casualties were all equipment malfunctions as opposed to some guy on another thread who kept his with turtles!
I have 5 year-old polyydon spathula runts living peacefully in 75 gallon aquariums. I have no idea why these fish bring out the worst in people. They are easy to grow, fun to watch and do not exibit any of the negative characteristics I have read of here and many other places.
Their rostrums do not get messed up in a rectangualr tank. They easily eat a pellet. They will not outgrow a tank if you start with runts. They ARE huge waste producers. They accept water parameters that would kill 98% of most other fish. They enjoy 75 degree water but will tolerate 85. They live in American river systems. They are tough fish.
I raise over 30,000 per year for caviar (bigfishfarms.com) and sell off my runts to the aquaria trade. We used to dispose of them until I launched a three year study into keeping them in home aquariums. This study involved 75 fish given to friends in the LFS trade We found that they are a rewarding addition to the hobby.
Look for Moontanman's thread on NANFA for a complete tutorial on how to care for paddlefish.
I have 5 year-old polyydon spathula runts living peacefully in 75 gallon aquariums. I have no idea why these fish bring out the worst in people. They are easy to grow, fun to watch and do not exibit any of the negative characteristics I have read of here and many other places.
Their rostrums do not get messed up in a rectangualr tank. They easily eat a pellet. They will not outgrow a tank if you start with runts. They ARE huge waste producers. They accept water parameters that would kill 98% of most other fish. They enjoy 75 degree water but will tolerate 85. They live in American river systems. They are tough fish.
I raise over 30,000 per year for caviar (bigfishfarms.com) and sell off my runts to the aquaria trade. We used to dispose of them until I launched a three year study into keeping them in home aquariums. This study involved 75 fish given to friends in the LFS trade We found that they are a rewarding addition to the hobby.
Look for Moontanman's thread on NANFA for a complete tutorial on how to care for paddlefish.
If you consider yourself a responsible fish keeper, test water on a regular basis, perform regular water changes, have a hidden credit card for your aquaria purchases, you can keep 2-3 in a 75 gallon tank by themselves or with a cleaner fish. One can be kept with other docile species. they do not require companionship.
If you keep paddlefish you will quickly observe that 1. they are way-cool fish and exude an ancient feeling about them. 2. They are really stupid and have no personality whatsoever.
Moontanman has too many fish in his tank for my liking but he has fewer life responsibilities than I do, more time to screw with his setup. I have a full time job AND grow out thousands of paddlefish every year in 200,000 gallons of water. My home setup is a small reef tank that I scrape the algae off the glass every fall to see if anything has survived. Damn flame hawk is going on 8 years or I would have taken that setup down years ago.
Understand that even the fish I cull as runts occasionally will sprout into big-ass fish. We will take them back if you have no where to go with them. This rarely happens. I have been doing this for seven years now and am pretty good at culling.
We are learning new things almost daily about these fish.
If you keep paddlefish you will quickly observe that 1. they are way-cool fish and exude an ancient feeling about them. 2. They are really stupid and have no personality whatsoever.
Moontanman has too many fish in his tank for my liking but he has fewer life responsibilities than I do, more time to screw with his setup. I have a full time job AND grow out thousands of paddlefish every year in 200,000 gallons of water. My home setup is a small reef tank that I scrape the algae off the glass every fall to see if anything has survived. Damn flame hawk is going on 8 years or I would have taken that setup down years ago.
Understand that even the fish I cull as runts occasionally will sprout into big-ass fish. We will take them back if you have no where to go with them. This rarely happens. I have been doing this for seven years now and am pretty good at culling.
We are learning new things almost daily about these fish.
Anyone know where a guy could buy some of these runts? I've got a 750 gallon tank that is nearing completion and a few of these guys would be awsome.
Thanks. It will either make us alot of bread or we will be living in our daughter's basement in 10 years.
