Humans play a major role as predator in the northern states. Levies, and dams have (since 1934) eliminated the natural grass lands along the Mississippi river, and replaced them with rich bottom land farming. In Florida the humans play a very minor role compared to the vast number of natural predators that are available. Experiments with attrition have shown that if the baby paddlefish are released to soon at 6 inches then they are easy pray for relatively small one pound catfish. This would indicate that the 15 inch size that is currently being released for ranching, would be the ideal size for release. It is unlikely that a predator could pick up and carry a 15 inch fish unless it was a Fish Eagle or a very large catfish. A large Bass would make an easy meal out of a 6 inch paddlefish. In fact the paddlefish might make the perfect bait for catching larger fish. To make a graph that might forecast the outcome of a breeding would be a difficult exercise. Paddlefish are fast growing egg scatters and their adult population is based on how many survive and how well the babies can hide from all the potential predators. The natural grass in Florida water (River of Grass) serves as protection for small fish and fresh water Grass shrimp. Competition with other small fish for food (Grass shrimp & Mosquito larva) would only last for a few weeks during the late spring time. The transition from grass to open water would be at about 8 inches in length because that is when the paddlefish develop the filter feeding gills that require flowing water. The time between this 8 inch length and the 15 inch length is about a month and the attrition levels might be unpredictable. Smaller paddlefish could be released into grass laden areas and one might expect them to survive as long as the Bass are well fed and the birds are not over populated. Any grow out and release program would have to take this into consideration. Obviously it would be much cheaper to release baby fish and not have to provide the grow out space, food, and transportation for 15 inch+ fish. If all the baby fish are eaten then it might be considered a waste of resources. The ultimate experiment might be to find out in advance of large scale release of small babies what the survival rate might be within the grass. Yes, even baby Bass need to eat.

This scenario is complicated on the fish farm because they are big babies with big appetites. It is almost impossible to duplicate a natural environment of flooded marsh land on the typical fish farm. Small Paddlefish require live food till they are about 4 to 6 inches, and that is a lot of live food to come up with. It could get expensive unless you happen to own a feeder farm or your local utilities has an old sewage treatment plant with plenty of Daphnia. I am experimenting with Daphnia in a 1,000 gallon swimming pool but the trick is to produce them in any quantity while maintaining the water quality. I probably have as many blood worms as I do Daphnia in stinky water. The only way to filter the water is with large sponge filters but if it is too clean then the Daphnia have nothing to eat. Paradox to beat all paradoxes. Nature represents a strong challenge and life would not be able to go on without it. Thank God for the Everglades and all the mosquitoes! Actually baby Paddlefish will eat small floating food of almost any kind so the feeding part is not all that difficult. From powder to small pellet is is a good idea to have plenty of it in stock because they do grow quickly and you could feed them every hour on the hour.

Public enemy number one! King Fisher

Dog be Gone?

Green Tree Frog - Lure insects and feed fish

These are great to have around because their eggs hatch out and feed the larger fish.

end Attrition