Gar Quiz - the return - ID the fish
- Thread starter E_americanus
- Start date
interesting...i am going to say that fish 2 is from the lake and fish 1 is from the river...going off how atleast around me all the fish i get from a river are stockier the any of the same sp. then i get from a lake...they also tend to be darker aswell...
Hmm, thanks for the shoutout, even if my answer was wrong.
I would guess that the top fish would be from the lake, and the bottom fish from the river. The reason being that a lake fish is going to have a more sedentary lifestyle, spending more time floating motionless under vegetation, and have a slightly thicker body, whereas the river fish is going to be more active, swimming against the current, and likely be a slimmer specimen from the extra physical exertion.
I would guess that the top fish would be from the lake, and the bottom fish from the river. The reason being that a lake fish is going to have a more sedentary lifestyle, spending more time floating motionless under vegetation, and have a slightly thicker body, whereas the river fish is going to be more active, swimming against the current, and likely be a slimmer specimen from the extra physical exertion.
E_americanus;4322213; said:
Ok here are the answers:
1 - spotted gar
2 - spotted gar
tricky, i know, but i was also interested in finding out what you guys would note about these two (relatively speaking) very different fish (i was also trying to avoid using fish and fishes in the clues, so as not to give away that they are the same species).
i believe Madding had the correct answer, congrats to Michael on that; however, i would also like to point out that Conner pointed out some interesting features to note (you can check out his answer for more details).
we are still very much working on these fish, as their progeny are the individuals i deal with in the lab every day. i won't get into further differences, but use this quiz as an example of the high degree of variability within the species. these two gars are from two very different localities.
as a BONUS - this will get into what you guys may know about morphology, one of these fish comes from are more fluvial (flowing water) environment, the other from a lacustrine (lake) environment...any guesses as to which is which (also mention why you think so).
for the record, the snout on fish from photo 1 generally have shorter snouts than what we see in fish from photo 2 (this particular line-up just happened to have gars with similar-length snouts; the difference is usually a bit more drastic).
again, this was a tricky one...but congrats to everyone who got it down to Florida and spotted gar...this quiz was a good example that pattern doesn't always work, but sometimes general morphology can be quite different too--
--solomon
Hello Solomon. Based on your experience, gars living in what conditions (diet, living conditions, etc) usually have the longest nose? Can you do some elaboration on this question as you post your answers? Thanks in advance.
Tendou Souji;4328830; said:
in response to both of your questions...i will reply with more later
in the mean time, reGARding the first question, i would look up the concept of phenotypic plasticity and see what you come up with. this actually holds great insight to the variability in fishes, and specifically some of what you see with the gar variations within species...i'll elaborate on snouts soon too.
as for the second comment, i snapped some photos of the short-body gar a couple weeks ago but need to locate them on the hard drive. will try to get some other shots too, as i recall those others not being of greatest quality. that fish is still quite small, much smaller than any of his cohort...we refer to him as the "bonsai spot"...he eats a ton, gets fat, but grows very little. nice pattern though--
--solomon
