How much to feed my 17.5" fl gar+pics

[Weylin]

Looks like a cross between a Shortnose and a Florida...

 

[Polypterus]

It is a platostomus given meritistic counts. (60+ lateral scale rows)
It is pointless to suspect a hybrid as there is no way to verify that and the counts line up with Platostomus so no need to speculate. Shorts do show a good amount of variation and one of mine is not far of from this one in pattern.

 

[spwd]

Hes a shortnose then,these grow roughly the same as florida/spotted or a bit smaller?
Now we have cleared that up,back to the feeding,he will still only take it if i put it next to his mouth or drop it on his snout and if it falls to the floor he doesnt go to the bottom to eat like my florida does,is this just him settling in do you think?
Cheers steve

 

[Polypterus]

Hes a shortnose then,these grow roughly the same as florida/spotted or a bit smaller?
Now we have cleared that up,back to the feeding,he will still only take it if i put it next to his mouth or drop it on his snout and if it falls to the floor he doesnt go to the bottom to eat like my florida does,is this just him settling in do you think?
Cheers steve

Shorts grow really fast the first year then drop to almost nothing. a 17 inch fish could presumably be a one year old fish. It could potentially get to 20 inches maybe...

Shorts become aggressive feeders in general once they settle in. I don't however imagine it is going to like it's tankmates much so I'm not sure at this point how it will act down the road. It may go in several directions. A keyword for Shorts is UNPREDICTABLE...

Shorts are usually a bit touchy and generally skittish fish and have a habit of exaggerating everything they do to semi psycho levels. They breach hard. they hit food hard and they spook hard. Right now I'd say it is too early to try and guess how it will adapt to this tank.. Even if it does go one way it may switch to another anyhow.

Just keep feeding it as you have been. If it ain't broken do not try to fix it or mess with it... just go with the flow. This is the best advice for anything related to Shortnosed I could give..

 

[spwd]

Cheers richard,thanks for the advice,il keep my eye on things.

Cheers steve

 

[vicdeedee]

thats not a florida or spotted gar, its a standard shortnose (Lepisosteus platostomus)
if you love gar's like i do, im also a hardcore fisherman but i have respect. i have a few silver gars if anyone would like them (not true gar's) but nice still.
this might help you with your next purchase, names and types, cheers

Atractosteus spatula- alligator gar 6-10 '
Atractosteus tropicus- tropical gar 4'
Atractosteus tristoechus- cuban gar 6'
Lepisosteus osseus- longnose gar 6'
Lepisosteus platostomus- shortnose gar 2 1/2'-
Lepisosteus oculatus- spotted gar 4'
Lepisosteus platyrhincus- florida gar 4'
hybrid gars
Lepisosteus platostomus x Atractosteus spatula- Crocodile gar type I
Lepisosteus platyrhincus or oculatus x Atractosteus spatula-Crocidile gar type 2
Four known types exist both in wild and cultivated varieties:

Atractosteus spatula X Lepisosteus platostomus (Croc gar type I)
A. spatula X L. platyrhinchus (Croc gar type II)
A. spatula X L. oculatus
A. spatula X L. osseus

 

[Polypterus]

thats not a florida or spotted gar, its a standard shortnose (Lepisosteus platostomus)
if you love gar's like i do, im also a hardcore fisherman but i have respect. i have a few silver gars if anyone would like them (not true gar's) but nice still.
this might help you with your next purchase, names and types, cheers

Atractosteus spatula- alligator gar 6-10 '
Atractosteus tropicus- tropical gar 4'
Atractosteus tristoechus- cuban gar 6'
Lepisosteus osseus- longnose gar 6'
Lepisosteus platostomus- shortnose gar 2 1/2'-
Lepisosteus oculatus- spotted gar 4'
Lepisosteus platyrhincus- florida gar 4'
hybrid gars
Lepisosteus platostomus x Atractosteus spatula- Crocodile gar type I
Lepisosteus platyrhincus or oculatus x Atractosteus spatula-Crocidile gar type 2
Four known types exist both in wild and cultivated varieties:

Atractosteus spatula X Lepisosteus platostomus (Croc gar type I)
A. spatula X L. platyrhinchus (Croc gar type II)
A. spatula X L. oculatus
A. spatula X L. osseus

Ummm yeah he has that info already...Or should
(It is Anne's widely dispersed version which is slightly different from Solomons and mine as it is based on different data ) but thanks for sharing it again...

Glad your a fisherman with respect for Gar...

This is the AP version which is based on several different sources both academic and anecdotal which is a bit more refined...

Q: How big does (fill in species) gar get?
Wild sizes are not an accurate indication of the captive size of the fish. Captivity poses challenges to a fish’s physiology that would not generally occur in the wild. Many different factors are involved with how big a fish will get and when it will get that big. This needs to be very well understood by the potential or current gar owner because of the fact these are generally large fish and they reach a large size rapidly. Each species is slightly different in growth rate. In general you can expect and should expect small juvenile fish to grow quickly to what is often referred to as a plateau size where growth will then slow. In general the following is a ballpark rough guide what you should expect:

Atractosteus:
Alligator gar (A. spatula): 15 to 24 inches first year. 5 foot average adult size
Tropical gar (A. tropicus) 12 to 15 inches first year, 2.5 foot average adult size (Unestablished)
Cuban gar ( A. tristoechus) 12 to 15 inches first year, 3 foot average adult size (Unestablished)

Lepisosteus:
Longnosed gar (L.osseus) 12 to 14 inches first year, 2.5 to 3 foot adult size
Shortnosed gar (L. platostomus) 12 to 14 inches first year, 2 foot adult size
Spotted gar (L. oculatus) 12 inches first year, 2 foot adult size
Florida gar (L. platyrhincus) 12 inches first year, 2 foot adult size

Hybrids are very much undocumented but have been shown to mirror the species crossed with an intermediate plateau point. For example the L. platostomus X A. spatula hybrids maxed out at 14 inches the first year. Actual adult size is unknown.

Again the above is a rough estimate and this will differ depending on several external factors such as diet, feeding frequency, water condition, frequency of water changes etc.

http://aquaticpredators.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34573

 

[spwd]

When i saw them in the lfs i did think they looked like they had a short snout and they looked different to my florida but because my fl is stunted i thought the ones in the shop were in proportion and my fl wasnt,if you know what i mean.Also the fact that these were only the 3rd lot of gar i had seen so forgive me for not spotting the difference immediately,but its all clear now thanks to you guys.

Cheers steve

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

hey no matter what dang nice gar.