Reefmonkey
Aquarium Advice Activist
I stopped in a tiny hole-in-the-wall fish store I had never seen before, just out of curiosity to see if they had anything rare or exotic.
In a freshwater tank, they had a bunch of silvery fish, about 1' to 18 inches long. They sold for about $24, as I recall. The label on the tank said "Tarpoon", and I swear they did look like tarpon, or at least an Elopiform like a ladyfish - even the mouth structure was the same.
I have googled "tarpoon" and can only find instances where tarpon was misspelled, I even looked on fishbase, and couldn't find a common name tarpoon. I know that tarpon are capable of living in brackish, and even fresh water at various times in their lives, but find it difficult to believe that this highly prized saltwater gamefish (legally catch and release only) would be available as a pet, but I can't dismiss the idea that this is just a misspelled tarpon they are selling. The only other option I can think of is they are selling some kind of other fish (some characoids can be long and silver, and resemble it) and are trying to capitalize on the tarpon similarity by calling it a tarpoon.
I would appreciate any information anyone had which could satisfy my curiosity.
In a freshwater tank, they had a bunch of silvery fish, about 1' to 18 inches long. They sold for about $24, as I recall. The label on the tank said "Tarpoon", and I swear they did look like tarpon, or at least an Elopiform like a ladyfish - even the mouth structure was the same.
I have googled "tarpoon" and can only find instances where tarpon was misspelled, I even looked on fishbase, and couldn't find a common name tarpoon. I know that tarpon are capable of living in brackish, and even fresh water at various times in their lives, but find it difficult to believe that this highly prized saltwater gamefish (legally catch and release only) would be available as a pet, but I can't dismiss the idea that this is just a misspelled tarpon they are selling. The only other option I can think of is they are selling some kind of other fish (some characoids can be long and silver, and resemble it) and are trying to capitalize on the tarpon similarity by calling it a tarpoon.
I would appreciate any information anyone had which could satisfy my curiosity.