Post by mick on Oct 27, 2008 2:07:33 GMT -5
Bowfin are normally ravenous eaters but they can go without eating longer than any other fish—for nearly a year if necessary—because of their low metabolisms.
There is only one living species of bowfin, which is also called the dogfish, mudfish, or grindle. This uniquely American freshwater fish is found in the Mississippi River basin, the Great Lakes, and other small bodies of water east of the Great Lakes. It is a fierce fighter with sharp teeth that is known to eat fish of all kinds as well as frogs, snakes, turtles, and even small mammals. It also sometimes cannibalizes other bowfin. Bowfin do not make good eating but are considered good game fish.
Bowfin can use their swim bladders, which most other fish use as a kind of flotation device, as a lung, allowing them to survive out of water for up to a day. In oxygen-poor water, bowfin will often gulp surface air in order to breathe. Paleontologists have discovered fossilized bowfin from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, the earliest of which dates to the Jurassic Era, which began 213 million years ago.
There is only one living species of bowfin, which is also called the dogfish, mudfish, or grindle. This uniquely American freshwater fish is found in the Mississippi River basin, the Great Lakes, and other small bodies of water east of the Great Lakes. It is a fierce fighter with sharp teeth that is known to eat fish of all kinds as well as frogs, snakes, turtles, and even small mammals. It also sometimes cannibalizes other bowfin. Bowfin do not make good eating but are considered good game fish.
Bowfin can use their swim bladders, which most other fish use as a kind of flotation device, as a lung, allowing them to survive out of water for up to a day. In oxygen-poor water, bowfin will often gulp surface air in order to breathe. Paleontologists have discovered fossilized bowfin from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, the earliest of which dates to the Jurassic Era, which began 213 million years ago.
