Help me ID these Gars....

[keebler06]

I own a 14" Longnose Gar, and I have come to realize that he will outgrow my budget for aquariums. So I decided to get some smaller breeds to fill his shoes. The pet store was selling a "Marble Lined Gar", I know this is not a real gar species but I bought it knowing it to be just mis-labelled. I bought 2 of them, one was gray and the other brown, the brown one was the bigger of the too. I bought them at about 4 inches. Now the gray one was the smaller of the 2, but he has now outgrown the brown one. I am pretty sure the gray one is a Florida, but I'm not sure about the brown one. Any help would be great! The three pictures are the 2 side by side, the Gray one, and the brown one staring at you. Sorry if they are poor quality.

 

[Noddy]

Can't really judge from the pics but i think you're right.
That's no hujeta, but a true gar!
The experts will chime in to tell what kind.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

florida

 

[Conner]

Hard to tell from those pics, but they're both probably* Florida's. Try to get some clearer side-by-side pics of them for us. How big are they now?

 

[keebler06]

About five inches, I am just a little worried because the gray has out grown the brown, even though the brown was the bigger by about half an inch. I'll try to get some more pictures up here, they are a little camera shy.... okay they're just shy.

 

[headbanger_jib]

florida/spotted gars

 

[E_americanus]

both should be FL gars. that's what's showing up in the hobby all over the place these days. i did see a couple ~12" longnoses today at the LFS, but they were pretty obvious in comparison. gars that small that look like that at this point in the season are almost always FL gars--
--solomon

 

[Conner]

About five inches, I am just a little worried because the gray has out grown the brown, even though the brown was the bigger by about half an inch. I'll try to get some more pictures up here, they are a little camera shy.... okay they're just shy.

Don't read too much into the different growth rates. It may be that the one that started out larger was more dominant/aggressive feeder at the store, but when you brought them home to your tank, that upset the balance, and now the smaller one is the more dominant/aggressive feeder.

I have 6 shortnose gars, and their growthrates are all over the place. Some of them seemed to grow 2-3 inches the first month, then stop for a month, then suddenly spurt ahead again, while others started out slow and then caught up in the end. As of now (I've had them for just over 3 months), there are 2 that are a little behind the others, but 4 of them are all between 12 and 14 inches. When I got them, they were between 7 and 9 inches!

 

[keebler06]

I'm just thinking I might have a Florida and a Shortnose. Like I mentioned the one is very gray and has spots/stripes on his snout, the other one is very brown and plain. I am still hunting my good camera, I'll get some better pictures up soon.

 

[Conner]

If you look up my shortnose thread, there are lots of good pics of young shortnose gars. They do look very different from Florida gars (at least IMO).

Get some better pics and we'll do our best to ID.