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. The underside of the paddlefish's "paddle" is covered with taste buds (like the ones on your tongue) and probably helps it to find places where plankton is the most abundant.

Male paddlefish are old enough to spawn when they are four to nine years. Females spawn when they are 6-12 years old. Spawning season is from March through June, when spring rains raise the water levels of rivers and water temperatures reach 50-60 degrees. Males and females gather in schools and release their eggs over gravel or sandbars. This is called "broadcast spawning." By the end of their first year, baby paddlefish grow about 10 to 12 inches. They can live up to 30 years.

Paddlefish are sometimes called a spoonbill, spoonbill cat, or shovelnose cat because some have mistaken the paddlefish as a member of the Catfish family. It is one of only four cartilaginous fish native to Texas. The chestnut lamprey, brook lamprey and shovelnose sturgeon are the others. Paddlefish were first seen by Europeans in the 16th century, when Hernando De Soto explored the Mississippi River.