caught in SW no markings, will get pics.

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kakojones

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2006
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Florida
Last night we caught a bunch of Gar 12" and under and one about 1.5 feet. We only kept one ten incher since these guys are in a pond/lake on my friend's property in myakka, fl and we can always go back for more. the problem is that not one of them had any markings, how do we figure out what kind it is? I'll get some pics this weekend after the pond at his house in town settles a bit and the new fish aren't stressed.

I've seen all the pics of gar on here and they don't really help me since the only thing I really notice are the patterns, I need to know some kind of shape or other feature that could help.

I don't know if we are in gator gar country or not and i'm not sure what other gars would be here.
 
check out the pics on www.primitivefish.com, there are pics of all the species of gars there. you are not really in gator country, so the alligator gar is out. it's either going to be a Florida gar or longnose gar. if the snout is really long and skinny (relatively speaking) and about 2x the length of the head (head = distance from eye to back of gill cover) then it's a longnose gar. if the snout is relatively shorter, then it's a Florida gar. those morphologies at that size should help you ID your gar. good luck!--
--solomon
 
gotta be florida then. we never see any with markings around here, whats up with that? so we can expect at least 3' for this guy? anyway, looks like we gotta dig a bigger pond now. and start breeding some feeders in the little pond.

thanks for the info.
 
kakojones;606062; said:
Last night we caught a bunch of Gar 12" and under and one about 1.5 feet. We only kept one ten incher since these guys are in a pond/lake on my friend's property in myakka, fl and we can always go back for more. the problem is that not one of them had any markings, how do we figure out what kind it is? I'll get some pics this weekend after the pond at his house in town settles a bit and the new fish aren't stressed.

I've seen all the pics of gar on here and they don't really help me since the only thing I really notice are the patterns, I need to know some kind of shape or other feature that could help.

I don't know if we are in gator gar country or not and i'm not sure what other gars would be here.
Click to expand...

By "no pattern" what do you mean by this? are the fish just a uniform silvery color? Also in the topic you wrote "caught in SW". Does this mean salt water? This seems to contradict your saying it was caught in a pond or lake.

The reason I ask hese questions is it is fully possible that what you have is not a gar at all but a Needlefish species.
 
The SW was supposed to be SW Florida, but i skipped the florida part. The gar is all brown on top and white/yellowish on the stomach. there is no pattern no spots that we could see.
I have tomorrow off and will get some photos of the little beast. My friend says he seems fine, he hangs around the bottom of the pond. he was going to throw some rosies in there yesterday to see what happens. hope he eats ok.

he's a gar for sure, we caught a bunch of them and even saw a three footer cruisin' the top when we got there.
 
kakojones;607251; said:
The SW was supposed to be SW Florida, but i skipped the florida part. The gar is all brown on top and white/yellowish on the stomach. there is no pattern no spots that we could see.
I have tomorrow off and will get some photos of the little beast. My friend says he seems fine, he hangs around the bottom of the pond. he was going to throw some rosies in there yesterday to see what happens. hope he eats ok.

he's a gar for sure, we caught a bunch of them and even saw a three footer cruisin' the top when we got there.
Click to expand...

ok i thought you meant SW = saltwater as well...if 'florida' were tagged onto that statement i would have figured it out. anyway, did you look at the pics at the link i posted? if you did, you should be able to ID your fish.

having said that, i doubt you have a Florida gar, as they have prominent spots all over their body for pretty much their entire lives. longnoses, however, are variable enough that they may not always have spots.

given your description of the coloration, i would guess you have a longnose gar. again, look at the pics in the link, and see if the snout looks more like a longnose as well. good luck--
--solomon
 
Fishy9.jpg


guess he is a florida, the spots showed up three days at least after it was released in our pond. is there a good reasons it was all dark? or a good reason its not as bright as all the other ones that are in the photos that other owners have?

fishy10.jpg
 
That is definitly a Florida. No question about it.

is there a good reasons it was all dark? or a good reason its not as bright as all the other ones that are in the photos that other owners have?
Click to expand...

Coloration can depend on many factors.
Food, water quality, maturity, stress level, as well as a number of other factors can affect a gars coloration. This being a newly caught fish it is not a big deal if it appears very dark.
 
Polypterus;609260; said:
That is definitly a Florida. No question about it.



Coloration can depend on many factors.
Food, water quality, maturity, stress level, as well as a number of other factors can affect a gars coloration. This being a newly caught fish it is not a big deal if it appears very dark.
Click to expand...

yup, definitely a Florida...in this case i would guess it was primarily stress that it's colors didnt show up, as well as surroundings as well...contrast will often change due to those two factors, and clearly was an issue here.

had the fish not had a pattern as you initially described when you got it, you could also use snout length/width to differentiate between the Florida and longnose. nice looking fish!--
--solomon
 
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