Couple pics of my shorties...

[Conner]

Here's a few updated pics of a few of my shortnose gars. They're getting big (as in longer than the Florida's by an inch or three)! By the way, I'm probably going to be listing a few of these for sale in the buy/sell section in a few days, although I'll probably only sell locally.

 

[E_americanus]

they are looking good conner! i have noticed that shorties have pretty rapid growth considering they are listed as the smallest species of the family. richard has found this too, and we have seen evidence of this in the wild as well. great fish...just spastic! how's the spotted coming along? --
--solomon

 

[Conner]

I'll get some pics of the spotted for you. He's really hit a growth spurt since I moved him into the 55g tank. He's probably 10-10.5" now .

And these shorties have grown amazingly fast! The fact that they've already eclipsed the Florida's by at least an inch, and some by several inches, is astounding. They aren't as thick as the Florida's are, just longer. They also have very different spotting, its more like they were swimming through an ink rain, and the spots kind of ran down their sides...

They are definitely more active and spastic than my Florida's (or the spotted, for that matter). I never used to hear splashing or a gar knocking the glass lids of the tank when I just had Florida's. These guys seem to like splashing water just for the fun of it or something .

BTW, most of the shorties are eating pellets now, as well as market shrimp, silversides, fd krill, and of course feeders .

 

[predfish]

what filter you have in that tank?

 

[Conner]

what filter you have in that tank?

I've got a 30g tank set up as a wet/dry filter. It more than handles the bioload of this tank.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

i found the shortys are jumpers too(one died cause of it) often i hear them smashing against the top. very nice!!

 

[Conner]

i found the shortys are jumpers too(one died cause of it) often i hear them smashing against the top. very nice!!

Yah, I'm glad I've got fully covered tanks or I probably would have lost a couple by now. I only lost one, and it mysteriously died overnight. I found it in the morning floating at the surface. It looked like maybe it had broken its back, but couldn't really tell. The rest have all been pretty good. They're a little skittish, but they're getting better. They are just very spastic at the surface. They don't go up and take a breath like the Florida's do, they go up, snatch at the surface and bolt for the bottom, usually splashing water out past the lids, and usually hitting the lids as well. I wish the lids of the tank sat a little higher off the water so they'd stop hitting them.