Name a fish that can weigh nearly the same as a kindergartener, live for more than two or three decades, and has an undeniably large nose. Did the paddlefish come to mind?
Paddlefish are nicknamed “spoonbills” or “spoonbill cats” because of their large paddle-shaped snouts. People once believed paddlefish used their snouts to dig in the dirt and stir up food, but most biologists now believe otherwise. Healthy paddlefish without snouts have been found.
Paddlefish are large. They can grow longer than five feet and weigh more than 60 lbs. They are also long-lived and can survive more than 20 years. Paddlefish are primitive creatures whose skeletons are composed of cartilage rather than bone. Their mouths are enormous, but they have no teeth. Amazingly, paddlefish survive on tiny microscopic water animals. The fish feed by swimming with their mouths open wide. They filter food out of the water through a complex system of gills.
Only one other species from the paddlefish family exists. It’s been found only in the Yangtze Valley in China, and is believed to be extinct. In the Midwest, paddlefish are found in the Mississippi River Valley and some large reservoirs. During most of its life, a paddlefish lives in quiet or slow-moving rivers that supply the microscopic life it feeds on. When spawning, the fish requires larger free-flowing rivers with clean gravel bars where they deposit their eggs.
The Paddlefish Way
- Sharklike with a greatly elongated paddle-like snout, a paddlefish is bluish-gray to blackish on back, grading to white on its belly.
- The snout in small paddlefish is more 1/3 of the fish’s total length.
- Paddlefish can attain a length of 10 to 14 inches in their first year, and at age 17 can be 60 inches long. Paddlefish can live to be 30 years old or more.
- The paddlefish is Missouri’s official state aquatic animal; it’s highly valued as a sport fish.
- Because it is one of the most ancestral fish species alive today, it is of considerable interest to biological research.
Find out more about paddlefish in the MDC’s Field Guide.
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