How to tell the difference between Atractosteus species.

Iv'e been wanting a tropical/cuban gar for a while now. I know they are hard to come by so i have been keeping an eye out everywhere. I have noticed my LFS has no idea what they are selling, I have bought 3 florida gar from them all sold as different fish. Anyway I see they have some gator gar while I was there today, but i really have no idea how to distinguish between gator, and tropical gar. Pics are pretty bad, but any info would be greatly appreciated.

A similar picture would help if it were A.Spatula and A.tropicus. Even then I feel like YOY of both species look the same from the top.

I know how to id gators...and i know the pictures posted are gators. Im asking how can i differentiate between a young gator and a young tropical gar. Obviously if they where adults it would be a dead give away by size, but i feel tropical and gator YOY look the same. The cubans morph is easy to spot.

This post has nothing to do with Lepisosteus species. Specifically how can i tell the difference between a young gator and a young tropical gar.

TheMessanger said:

Young trop gar at 6inch I bought a few months ago.


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Thank you, that is exactly what i was looking for.

How much did you pay? and where did you find? If you dont mind me asking.

Yeah they look nothing alike pattern wise. Iv'e only seen a few pics of juvenile trops and they looked just like gators, possibly mislabeled. Anyway thanks again for the pic.