ID my Gar please

[Monstaf1sh]

Iv'e posted up my gar before when it was alot smaller and i had been told by polypterus my gar was a shortnose gar as its grown its has started to show spots is it still a shortnose? ive looked at pics of shortnose and they dont show any spots on its back. Any ideas?

 

[Polypterus]

Still looks like a Shortnose....Coloration is not a good key to ID these fish by it can be used secondarily but not as a key indicator. Dorsal Spots on a YOY (young of year) shortnose is not unheard of nor uncommon.

BUT: There are some mighty strange looking shortnosed running around Australia right now however and there is some suggestion that these fish may be L. platostomus X L. oculatus / platyrhincus (maybe L. osseus) hybrids...Not enough info is available at this time to confirm this concretely as a species ID....

 

[ZOO YORK 207]

Looks like a shortnosed to me.

 

[skylar69]

looks like a long nose 2 me

 

[E_americanus]

i agree with richard...its an unusual looking fish. if you could get a direct dorsal shot that would help a lot with the ID. it still looks more like a shortnose than most other gars, but that snout is a little longer than normal...and the pattern is somewhat odd.

as alluded to earlier, shortnose gars tend to have few spots, but when they are this size they usually have several on the head and dorsal area...so that's not a diagnostic for the species.

great looking fish, please keep us updated with more pics!--
--solomon
ps-- how big is the fish right now approx?

 

[Monstaf1sh]

Thanks guys,

Its probably about 15cm.
I will post some more pics as it gets bigger hopefully we will know more then.

Cheers.

 

[Polypterus]

Thanks guys,

Its probably about 15cm.
I will post some more pics as it gets bigger hopefully we will know more then.

Cheers.

Cool..I look foreword to seeing how this guy grows up..
Just for reference purposes below is a pic of one of my approx. 15cm fish.
As you can see they are not all that off in general proportions. Yours looks a little chunkier however

 

[Monstaf1sh]

I just introduced another gar in with this one they were apparently from the same batch, some extra pics and updates.

baby.

They could be hybrids one turned out a little different to the other or the one i kept is just obese?

 

[E_americanus]

it's a Florida/spotted gar

the initial shots showed minimal patterning, which can happen with Florida/spotted gars, but is more common in the natural look of a shortnose, hence the initial difference in ID. given your most recent pics, definitely a Florida/spotted--
--solomon

 

[demjor19]

it's a Florida/spotted gar

the initial shots showed minimal patterning, which can happen with Florida/spotted gars, but is more common in the natural look of a shortnose, hence the initial difference in ID. given your most recent pics, definitely a Florida/spotted--
--solomon

i agree!