Paddlefish have no scales. Their gill cover is long and comes to a point, and they have tiny eyes. Paddlefish have no teeth and eat by swimming through the water with its mouth held wide open, scooping up tiny plants and animals in the water called plankton. They filter out the food with their gill rakers.

Is a paddlefish a catfish?

The paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) is the oldest surviving animal species in North America. ... It is also sometimes called a Spoonbill or Spoonbill Catfish, although it is not a catfish. The name paddlefish comes from the Greek and Latin words meaning “many teeth” and “spatula”.

What type of scales do paddlefish have?

Elongated rhomboidal scales cover the fleshy lobe of the caudal fin dorsal to the lateral line. They are arranged in ray-like patterns and lie adjacent to each other much like those of Lepisosteus. Most of them are 6-10 mm in length. In the middle of the caudal lobe they are 5-6 rows deep.