Freshwater tarpon?

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Reefmonkey

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
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Location
Houston TX
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.
 
Did it have anything resembling barbels or antennae near the mouth? On first thought, I think an arowanna has a "similar" look as a juvenile.
 
No, it wasn't an arowana, no osteoglossum. Plus, caudal fin was very distinct and forked. They did sell arowanas in another tank. Seriously, the thing looked just like a tarpon.
 

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tarpon

I googled freshwater tarpon, and found a) a Thai outfit that would guide you to fish tarpon in rivers, and b) another company that would do the same in Costa Rica. The Costa Rican place even had some info on studies done locally proving something like 14% of the tarpon had never been is saltwater.

So it seems tarpon can be a fresh or at least a brackish water fish. Now the question is how big of a tank does a 300 lb very active fish need? And are they schooling fish?? Hello, Seaworld??? LOL
 
I was tempted to buy it, but didn't want to put it in one of my tanks, and feared even my pond was too small for the size it might grow : D
 
tarpon

Yeah I can see where a 3 or 4 foot fish that will swim like a demon and can clear the water when jumping might be a big large for anything less than an acre or 2. LOL But it would be reaaaallly cool!!
 
Tarpon are HUGH. They migrate between fresh and salt water. Big fishing down in the Gulf. Definitely NOT an aquarium fish LOL They're known for their fight and their high jumps when hooked.
ps - you need a special license to fish for Tarpon.
 
i live in FL also and have seen a tarpoon jump out of the water and catch a small bird. FYI
 
You need a special licence to keep tarpon or else you could pay a hefty fine.

Besides being bony and hard to fillet (a reason why people don't like to eat them), they get massive. More than 6ft long and over 200lbs.

I live in FL and I have caught one before and one would be crazy to keep it in an aquarium.

However I do know a guy that keeps a couple in a huge brackish pond behind his house. :)
 
They have em at my LFS and they label them "Freshwater Barracuda"... I thought the same thing, "Dang, those are 6 inch TARPON in that there tank!"
 
I saw them in another store on Saturday. Both of these stores are in Houston's Westside Chinatown, little independent mom and pops run by Asian families. Interesting to see what they have sometimes, but not responsible in their choice of specimens they carry by any stretch of the imagination. The one I went to Saturday, I never saw so many tanks full of fluorescent dye-injected fish in my life. Lots of hybrids - flowerhorns, parrot cichlids too. Kinda sad to me, I think there are enough naturally beautiful fish in this world that I couldn't begin to keep them all, so we don't need to create circus freak fish. I asked the guy about the fish, he said they are indopacific tarpon, smaller than atlantic, but still a big whopping fish. I checked them against indopacific tarpon in fishbase, and they sure are. Same jaw structure, same long, filamentous last ray on dorsal fin. Also, he had freshwater stingrays for sale, which I thought were illegal to own here in Texas. I hate to mess with a man's livelihood, but am wondering if the responsible thing to do would be let the authorities know what he sells. Any thoughts?
 
WaterPond said:
Don't tell the authorities, Sure, you know they are illegal, but who is it hurting?

Coastal Texas is quite different from your home in Ontario. We are subtropical. Aquarium releases of tropical fish are becoming established here. From plecostomus to jack dempseys, these releases are overwintering and thriving, and may be breeding. Exotics can be a serious threat to native wildlife. Some guy goes into a lfs and thinks "cool, a pet stingray" and then the thing gets too big for his tank, so he releases it in the local lake. A few more people do that, and a breeding population could get established. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department didn't outlaw these species arbitrarily.
 
immigrants

And don't forget a few other non native species we have deliberately or accidentally introduced into north american ecosystems. Such as zebra mussels in the great lakes, kudzu all over the south and everyones favorite ..... the norwegian rat. It is not nice to mess with mother nature. :D
 
FishyP - what a sight that must have been to see the tarpon catch a bird. Everytime we go out fishing I wait and watch to catch a glimpse of a tarpon, but haven't yet. They are definitely NOT aquarium fish ! And personally I would report anyone trying to sell them for an aquarium. Eventually those fish would have to be released, and they'd probably lose the skills they need to survive in the wild by then.

Introduced species are another problem - it happens all the time. Fish & Wildlife actually purposely introduced tilapia into the lake behind my house to keep it "looking nice" by reducing the grasses. Now we have a lake full of tilapia and a dwindling bass population since their grass spawing grounds have been eaten.

I think we all have a responsibility to be responsible fish and animal keepers. Introduced species are competing with our own native species and are wiping them out. The common ground sparrow is an introduced species, as is the European Starling. These birds are outcompeting our own native species which is one of the reasons by bluebirds are so hard to find these days.

Sorry - this is one of those topics that I take great interest in. Time for me to get off my soapbox :) thanks for listening
 
Depending on what state you live there are different laws about keeping gamefish. Here in KS where I am it's perfectly legal, though the sale of them may be restricted (I'm really not sure).

We have a problem here locally with a fish called the silver carp. They're a non-native species that was released w/the idea of cleaning up some algae problems in an overgrown lake. They've bred like crazy and have the bad habit of leaping several feet out of the water when they're startled. This obviously makes them a hazard for anyone wanting to boat or jet ski on the reservoir.
 
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