Gar Quiz - the return - ID the fish
- Thread starter E_americanus
- Start date
no expert.
E_americanus;4319852; said:reasons for both your answers?
Because the heads look identical to me, from the distance of eye to gill and eye to jaw. The sloped head of the first fish seems to me a byproduct of the fishes fatness, not because it is a different species. The top picture is taken at an angle whereas the second picture is taken from straight up, making the fish in the top picture appear differently shaped whereas I believe the angle is merely throwing people off. The fatness of the top fish and different coloration make it look like a Florida, but I am not convinced.
Maybe this is very unscientific, but the reason I feel the top is florida and the bottom spotted is this:
The top gar is more of a gray overall color (I know, VERY variable in nature), has a thicker body and thicker caudal peduncle. The bottom fish has more of a greenish cast to the body, with a slimmer build and thinner caudal peduncle.
From the examples of both types of gar I've seen so far, that leads me to think the top is a florida and the bottom spotted. It seems to me like the spotted tend to be a slightly slimmer fish than the florida's, and are more likely to have more green coloring as well.
But I could be wrong (happens more often than not...).
The top gar is more of a gray overall color (I know, VERY variable in nature), has a thicker body and thicker caudal peduncle. The bottom fish has more of a greenish cast to the body, with a slimmer build and thinner caudal peduncle.
From the examples of both types of gar I've seen so far, that leads me to think the top is a florida and the bottom spotted. It seems to me like the spotted tend to be a slightly slimmer fish than the florida's, and are more likely to have more green coloring as well.
But I could be wrong (happens more often than not...).
great comments and diagnoses across the board everyone...if you notice anything else different or similar feel free to post even if you have already given your official answer. thanks for the responses so far, i'll post the answers likely later this evening (or tomorrow earlier).--
--solomon
--solomon
my reason for the first answer is that fish looks like my 18" florida after it bailed and dried out some like that fish is dried some...the second one(i was kidding with my "offical answer") is most likly a spotted...it just has somthing about it that pulls me away from a florida can't put a point on it, but it is there...
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
