ok will add somewhat of a clue...in all likelihood, we have not yet seen the (most likely) correct answer yet...--
GAR QUIZ - Special Birthday Edition
- Thread starter E_americanus
- Start date
A Trop..........
x2, especially after remembering Solomon's stock at one of his Gar Labs from a previous thread and comparing the picture to a picture of a tropical gar larvae.
...interesting on the comparison of gar larvae, what photo of TPG larvae are you comparing to, and how would you say it differs from this photo?
I was using the photos from these two webpages, "Hatching" and "Hunters from the Start," when I made my comparison since the gar seemed to be in between the two stages that were pictured on those webpages.
After looking at this new photo, I can say that the previously pictured gar is not a tropical gar, or a gar of the genus Atractosteus for that matter, based on the snout development thus far (provided that those are pictures of the same individual or at least from the same group of gar larva). This particular gar's snout seems to be much more developed and pronounced than that of the tropical gar larvae that I was using for a comparison which leads me to believe that it is of the genus Lepisosteus rather than of the genus Atractosteus.
I now know that the correct ID is, but I'm not going to post it here in order to let everyone else have their turn, too.
I was using the photos from these two webpages, "Hatching" and "Hunters from the Start," when I made my comparison since the gar seemed to be in between the two stages that were pictured on those webpages.
After looking at this new photo, I can say that the previously pictured gar is not a tropical gar, or a gar of the genus Atractosteus for that matter, based on the snout development thus far (provided that those are pictures of the same individual or at least from the same group of gar larva). This particular gar's snout seems to be much more developed and pronounced than that of the tropical gar larvae that I was using for a comparison which leads me to believe that it is of the genus Lepisosteus rather than of the genus Atractosteus.
I now know that the correct ID is, but I'm not going to post it here in order to let everyone else have their turn, too.
hey Ryan,
can you post the links to the photos you were comparing to for reference on the other sites? i would like to check them out.
to Everyone,
i would add that at this extremely early stage, one can't go by snout length in ID of a gar...it just doesn't work. we are still learning some of the nuances firsthand for early fry-stage ID (very little has been done before in terms of differential ID among fry-stage gar species), but we're still putting things together and comparing to the earlier lit.
coloration may be a factor, but we are still working on that...but morphologically (especially this early), there is very very very little different, at least from a practical sense.
i will say that both photos are of very newly hatched fry (within less than 1-2 hours of hatching); the first photo (OP) was from this past Tuesday, the second photo was from 2009.--
--solomon
EDIT: just saw that the links are hyperlinked in text, thanks Ryan--
Ah, well, that definitely changes things. I thought that the first picture was of a newly hatched fry while the second was the same fry later on which is why I went with the development of the snout, but I guess that's out the window for helping to ID a gar.
Now are the pictured gars the same species of gar, or are they different species? Regardless, I'm still sticking with my new ID for the second one for sure; I'm saying that it's a spotted gar which is a pure educated guess at this point based off of the difficulty in IDing gar fry and the fact that you've been working a lot with SPGs for the past few years.
here's a pic i just snapped tonight (tough shooting these guys as i don't want to disturb them). as you can see development is extremely rapid, this is the fish that hatched out on the evening of 6.28.2011, a mere two days later and we can see well-developed eyes and the yolk sac is greatly reduced. will try to keep the updates coming--
--solomon
--solomon
Wow, they sure do grow fast. Are these "bucket babies" or were they naturally fertilized?
