#Paddlefish

[i-give-you-a-fish]

You get an American Paddlefish

Polyodon spathula

whatever. *whittles you into a small wooden spoon*

[protectoursharks]

There are four types of fish scales!

Cycloid scales are thin, overlap, and flexible. They're found on primitive teleosts (like minnows and carp).

Ctenoid scales have small, backwards pointed scales (known as cterns) make the fish more hydrodynamic and faster. They're found on Advanced Ctenoids (like perch and sunfish).

Ganoid scales are thick, diamond-shaped, and mostly non-overlapping. They're found on Chondrostei (like sturgeons and paddlefish).

Placoid scales are spikey and tooth-like with nerves. These are found on Chondrichthyes (like sharks and rays).

Ichthyology Notes 3/?

[catnoli]

carrd | faq | ko-fi | shop

sturgeon and paddlefish for a commission!!

[alex-fictus]

P is for...?

All of the P names in my Paleo Party! Are there any I'm missing?

Notes:

Not pictured - Pomatrum and Paradoxides. I ran out of space ;u;

The Paddlefish as a general family are still alive today. I intended to make the Chinese Paddlefish specifically, but turns out I drew a different species! They're still technically a living fossil so they count lol

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[acarinarium]

Do you ever just think about sturddlefish? I do

[herpsandbirds]

Whats the COOLEST fresh water fish you know 🐟🫶

THE COOLEST FW FISH:

There are a lot of really amazing fw fish in the amazon basin, and I love giant catfishes from around the world. I'm based in North America though, so my attention goes there.

We have a pretty cool fish here...

 American Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), family Polyodontidae, order Acipenseriformes, found in various parts of the Mississippi River basin

This species is the only member of this family that still exists. They are most closely related to sturgeons. This order, Acipenseriformes, is considered one of the most evolutionarily primitive groups of ray finned fishes.

They do not have scales, and their skeleton is mostly cartilaginous.

They are filter feeders. Their heads and rostrums are covered with thousands of sensory receptors, which help them locate zooplankton swarms.

They are considered “vulnerable” due to overfishing, habitat degradation and destruction, and pollution.

photograph via: US Fish & Wildlife Service

[artechoceneexplorer]

Angling in Teyvat: a Glimpse into Aquatic Life across the Continent

From the vast freshwater rivers of Sumeru to the dark depths of Inazuma, aquatic life is diverse and widespread in Teyvat. Some that are common and widely available in fish markets and ponds, and others that only a handful of people have even seen alive in their natural habitat.

Hope you liked this mini series, I might make more if y'all want it :>

[mesozoicmarket]

Fossilized fish bones of a Chondrosteus acipenseroides from the Charmouth Mudstone Formation in Church Cliff Bay, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. This Lower Jurassic aged acipenseriform is a distant relative of today's sturgeon and paddlefish and one of the earliest known taxa of this clade. This specimen was acid prepped out a beach nodule.

[blessedscavengers]

part two of my Mississippi River fish series

made in 2024

[marshland-parlour-cat]

The pixel artist Neorice (https://x.com/neoriceisgood) has made a huge collection of marine life. I emailed him a while back asking if I could upload some of my favourites to my tumblr blog (crediting him of course), and he said I could.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Daily fish fact #533

Chinese paddlefish!

It was one of the two recently still extant species of paddlefish, until it was declared extinct in 2022, of course. They were native to the Yangtze River basin, living their adult lives near the coast and migrating up rivers to spawn. The other current species of paddlefish is still extant.

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

Fish of the yixian formation

With a scale

[bethanythebogwitch]

Easily my most popular post was about paddlefish, so this Wet Beast Wednesday it's time to give them their moment in the sun. Paddlefish are members of the family Polyodontidae and one of only two surviving members of the order Acipenseriformes, the other being sturgeons. The Acipenseriformes are one of the oldest lineages of ray-finned fish and diverged from the ancestors of all other modern ray-finned fish around 300 millions years ago. While paddlefish have been around since the Cretaceous period, there is only one living species, the American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula). Another modern species is the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius), but the last sighting of one was in 2003 and they were officially declared extinct in 2022. In this post, unless I specify otherwise everything I say will be referring to the American paddlefish.

(image: either an American paddlefish or a basking shark that got its nose caught in a hydraulic press)

Paddlefish are named for their very long rostrums which are packed full of electrorecepting organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini used to sense electric fiends in the water. The ampullae are not only on the rostrum, but also on the head and large skin flaps that extend from the operculum (gill cover). They are so sensitive that paddlefish are able to sense the movement of individual body parts of zooplankton. Paddlefish use their rostrums to detect their prey, which consists almost entirely of zooplankton. They are ream suspension feeders, swimming toward swarms of zooplankton with their mouths open. As the water passes through the gills, gill rakers filter out the zooplankton, which is then swallowed. Other fish that use this feeding method include basking sharks. While the rostrum is the primary method of prey detection, other ampullae on the head and operculum flap allow the fish to still effectively find food even if the rostrum is damaged or destroyed. When working fish fish on the Mississippi I caught multiple paddlefish who lost their rostrums to propeller strikes and were still doing fine. Electroreception is their main sense, with their eyesight being extremely poor.

(image: the skeletal structure of the rostrum)

As chordates, paddlefish have a notochord that runs from the head down the body. In most modern chordates, the notochord is only present in the embryo and is lost during development. This is not the case for paddlefish, who retain their notochord into adulthood, where is acts as a soft spine. While paddlefish (and their sturgeon cousins) are bony fish, they have lost most of the bone and now have skeletons composed almost entirely of cartilage. It is for this reason that early taxonomists initially miscategorized paddlefish as freshwater sharks. To be fair, they do look a lot like miniature basking sharks. Who crossbred with spoons. They also lost their scales and have smooth, easily damaged skin instead. Their skin is so easily damaged that just being caught in nets can leave scars. Paddlefish are large and long-lived. The American species reaches an average of 1.5 m (5 ft) in length, with the rostrum making up a third of that, and a weight of 27 kg (60 lbs). The largest recorded specimen was 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) and an estimated 90 kg (198 lbs). Despite being one of the largest American freshwater fish, they paled in comparison to the Chinese species, which could reach 3 m (9.8 ft) and 500 kg (1,100 lbs). The largest Chinese paddlefish on record was 7 m (23 ft) long and was estimated to weigh "a few thousand pounds". The Chinese paddlefish also preferred larger prey, feeding largely on small fish and crustaceans. American paddlefish live an average of 5 to 8 years, but in the right circumstances can live up to 60 years, with females generally living longer. The Chinese paddlefish had an estimated average lifespan of 29-38 years. In both species, it is believed that human activity drastically reduced their average lifespans.

(image: an absolute unit of an American paddlefish)

(image: a reconstruction of a Chinese paddlefish from the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum)

Paddlefish travel upriver to spawn in spring. They prefer to span on shallow gravel bars that would be exposed to air if not for spring rainfall and snow melt. Because they require very specific conditions to spawn, spawning rarely occurs every year. Every 4-5 years is more common. Paddlefish are broadcast spawners, with both males and females releasing gametes into the water column. Fertilized eggs are negatively buoyant and sticky. They will sink to the bottom and stick to the gravel. Once hatched, larvae will be swept down river to develop in deep pools. They are born without rostrums, which start to grow almost immediately. Paddlefish mature late, with females becoming sexually mature between 7 and 10 years of age, with a few not maturing until as late as 16-18 years. Human activity is resulting in many individuals dying before becoming sexually mature. American paddlefish are cross-fertile with the Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), producing a hybrid offspring known as the sturddlefish despite being separated by the Atlantic ocean and 184 million years of evolution. This was discovered by accident when scientists introduced paddlefish sperm too sturgeon eggs as a control group for an experiment. I made a post on the sturddlefish which you can read here.

(image: three larval paddlefish of different ages)

American paddlefish are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. They are native to the Mississippi river basin that encompasses much of the midwest and south of the United States, but their range used to be larger, reaching into Lake Huron, the Northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada. This reduction of native range is due largely to human activity, mostly overfishing and habitat loss. Zebra mussels, an invasive species, are a major competition for paddlefish as theybith feed on zooplankton. Reintroduction programs have begun in some of the states they were extirpated from, and they have been introduced to China, Cuba, and multiple countries in Europe for use in fishing and caviar production. 13 states allow for sport fishing of paddlefish, some of them relying on restocking to maintain a population for anglers. Paddlefish meat is edible and their eggs can be used for caviar. Paddlefish can be raised in captivity, but must will not spawn in captivity and so establishing captive populations requires gonad extraction and artificial insemination. Poaching of wild paddlefish for their eggs is an ongoing problem. The extinction of the Chinese paddlefish is believed to be the result of overexploitation and habitat loss.

(image: a paddlefish with its mouth open)

[world-of-advice]

[alex-fictus]

Some of my modern fishes and sharks!!

Paddlefish - Alligator Gar

Latimeria Coelacanth

Frilled Shark - Goblin Shark

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[the-lonelyshepherd]

Heya, that candy fish from west virginia you reblogged a week or so ago was really cool! Do you know any other neat WV fish? I've never been, but it seems like a really pretty place ♥️

hi yeah!!! i’m assuming you’re talking about the candy darter

very cool (sadly very endangered) fish

i actually remember a few from when i was researching that area. key terms for WV fish are a) long and b) weird. they also have very accurate names.

grass pickerel

looks like grass and also a pickle. long and weird

2. longnose gar

long nose, and you guessed it! a gar. also long and weird

3. shovelnose sturgeon

another nose thing. looks like a shovel this time. long and weird.

4. american paddlefish

as expected it is american, a fish, and its nose looks like a paddle. also long and weird.

honorable mentions (doesn’t fit into every category of accurate name and long and weird)

5. least brook lamprey

doesn’t look like a lamp. maybe a little like a ray. but it is like the silliest looking lamprey, they’re usually scaryish but this one just looks dumb.

6. fathead minnow

haha the name sounds like it’s being bullied

7. orangespotted sunfish

a sunfish with orange spots. sunfish are underrated they’re so colorful and cool looking :)

those are my honorable mentions of west virginia! not that many little colorful guys but i hope the long weird ones suffice. thank you for the ask :)