Gar Morphs?

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jpcampbell123;5118908; said:
I did a search on this and this came up on google. Has anyone seen this fish? What gar morphs exist ? I saw one a while back that looked like some kind of albino but it was not white like the one in the pic it was more of a yellow color.

http://usfwsyouthambassadors.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/swapping-the-bass/albino-gar/

John
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Well, there are a few gar color morphs out there including, but not limited to:

  • gold
    • xanthism
  • white
    • presumed by many to be leucism in most, if not all, cases rather than albinism
  • black
    • can either be true melanism or just a by-product of damage to the gar's eyes or the gar's lack of one or both eyes
I'm sure that there may be more morphs out there, but either they have not been discovered yet, or I just don't remember them.
 
white depends. 5k plus should be a good start. white trops i think may be less.

sunburst gar!!!!!
 
Wiggles92;5118961; said:
Well, there are a few gar color morphs out there including, but not limited to:

  • gold
    • xanthism
  • white
    • presumed by many to be leucism in most, if not all, cases rather than albinism
  • black
    • can either be true melanism or just a by-product of damage to the gar's eyes or the gar's lack of one or both eyes
I'm sure that there may be more morphs out there, but either they have not been discovered yet, or I just don't remember them.
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the eye issue is more coincidental with the darker pattern gars, it is not causal; there has been elaborate discussion of this in those threads where people try to explain they are dark because of a lack of eyes. this is not true.
melanism in gars, as far as we have seen is a genetic mutation (as it is in many other organisms) or can be a side-effect of spawning (after which they revert back to normal patterns). there may be other causes, but the eye issue is not one of them.

jpcampbell123;5119342; said:
Cool

How much would the white one like in the pic go for? I would love to see a pic of the golden ones too.

John
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leucistic gator gars are pretty hard to come by, and leucistic gars in general are pricey...if it were being sold to the right market it could go for $3-5k.

Lepisosteus platyrhincus;5119392; said:
white depends. 5k plus should be a good start. white trops i think may be less.

sunburst gar!!!!!
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yeah, white trops are $3-5k these days--
--solomon
 
E_americanus;5119445; said:
the eye issue is more coincidental with the darker pattern gars, it is not causal; there has been elaborate discussion of this in those threads where people try to explain they are dark because of a lack of eyes. this is not true.
melanism in gars, as far as we have seen is a genetic mutation (as it is in many other organisms) or can be a side-effect of spawning (after which they revert back to normal patterns). there may be other causes, but the eye issue is not one of them.
--solomon
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Oh, I thought that it was causal in those eyeless gars that John had found a while back; wasn't it something about the lack of eyes made them darken their coloration? It just seems like an odd coincidence for many black/very dark colored gars found in the wild seem to lack one or both eyes, and I believe that this was attributed to other fish eating their eyes rather than a genetic condition.
 
Wiggles92;5119615; said:
Oh, I thought that it was causal in those eyeless gars that John had found a while back; wasn't it something about the lack of eyes made them darken their coloration? It just seems like an odd coincidence for many black/very dark colored gars found in the wild seem to lack one or both eyes, and I believe that this was attributed to other fish eating their eyes rather than a genetic condition.
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We have run across SNG, SPG and LNG in the wild with eye issues and none showed any darkening of coloration. In fact other than the two fish John had I've never seen this trait being dually noted on any gar in captivity or wild.

If anyone wants a Black LNG I can go get you one in about a week... 3500$ shipping included.




No guarantee on color staying implied
 
Pejelajarto;5120693; said:
We have run across SNG, SPG and LNG in the wild with eye issues and none showed any darkening of coloration. In fact other than the two fish John had I've never seen this trait being dually noted on any gar in captivity or wild.

If anyone wants a Black LNG I can go get you one in about a week... 3500$ shipping included.




No guarantee on color staying implied
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Huh, I guess that the coloration on those two gars was just a coincidence then?

As for the black longnose gar, I wish that I had that much laying around... I bet that a certain gar hoarder may take you up on that, though. :grinno: Actually, has anyone saw him on here recently? I haven't viewed any new posts by him for over two weeks now.
 
Wiggles92;5121732; said:
Huh, I guess that the coloration on those two gars was just a coincidence then?

As for the black longnose gar, I wish that I had that much laying around... I bet that a certain gar hoarder may take you up on that, though. :grinno: Actually, has anyone saw him on here recently? I haven't viewed any new posts by him for over two weeks now.
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it was more coincidence with the blind gars...if you review those threads you will see that i adamantly stressed this, but for some reason that earlier train of thought has been able to perpetuate itself. as an example, consider gars at night and consider blind fishes...both of these groups turn LIGHT in color in darkness and ARE light in color respectively.
it does not make sense that a blind gar would turn dark, and evolutionary development further supports this. there are many invasive cichlids in those waters in FL, and some species are known for eating the eyes out of other fishes...that's what was going on.

as for the black gars, richard was joking (the two of us have discussed this in the past, and i actually just chatted with john -snookn- about it earlier today). in various species of gars, particularly observed in LNGs, the males will turn dark during spawning season or just prior. they turn back to normal afterward. true melanistic gars will stand out from this sort of temporary melanism, and they are in fact quite rare.

hope that clarifies a few things--
--solomon
 
E_americanus;5121824; said:
as for the black gars, richard was joking (the two of us have discussed this in the past, and i actually just chatted with john -snookn- about it earlier today). in various species of gars, particularly observed in LNGs, the males will turn dark during spawning season or just prior. they turn back to normal afterward. true melanistic gars will stand out from this sort of temporary melanism, and they are in fact quite rare.

hope that clarifies a few things--
--solomon
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Don't think anyone got my disclaimer on the deal. :)
 
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