Just how rare is the Xanthic morph?

[notnew2dis]

Can anybody explain this?
I have been fishing in the everglades for years. I had never seen one before.
Last week I caught sight of this one, and after spending the last few days chasing him down, I finally netted him.
I have read that they are a rare mutation, but just how rare?
He is about 15" and beautifully formed, looks extremely healthy and well-fed.

 

[E_americanus]

awesome specimen. price is determined by the "market" and essentially what people are willing to pay. if i were you i would not sell it for less than $3000-5000 USD (that's the range that most have sold for in the past, some more, some less). nice job catching the fish--
--solomon

 

[Madding]

I bought mine for 3.5K, yours is a little bigger than mine was when I got it but it also looks a little less gold, though no less impressive IMO.

 

[notnew2dis]

Ok, let me re-phrase this:
Is there any scientific data that you (gar people) know regarding the frequency of the mutation? 1:1,000,000? 1:100,000?

 

[circumbus]

damn.

 

[Madding]

Ok, let me re-phrase this:
Is there any scientific data that you (gar people) know regarding the frequency of the mutation? 1:1,000,000? 1:100,000?

It's tough to say. I imagine it is not that rare to happen in the wild, but the babies get eaten very easily because they are bright gold and attract predators and other gars. When one gets big enough to survive it is the true rarity...

So while it is uber rare, remember that there are entire lakes in Florida where the golden gars are said to be somewhat common.

I am sorry but I have no specific statistics for you. I did however pay 3.5k for one of these so do not think I am trying to underplay its rarity at all.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

You lucky moth...... Ahem....

Nice find

 

[zoohouse]

Talk about kicking over a rock and finding a gold nugget. Nice.

 

[Wiggles92]

Ok, let me re-phrase this:
Is there any scientific data that you (gar people) know regarding the frequency of the mutation? 1:1,000,000? 1:100,000?

I highly doubt that any organized studies have been done on this mutation, but I would imagine that it's fairly rare with probably an even lower frequency than 1:1,000,000 when one considers that some female Florida gars can lay up to 20,000 eggs at a time.

 

[BlackShark11k]

Congrats, you just caught a fish worth its weight in gold.