My first gars: Spotted/Floridas

[Cohazard]

Hi, I just swooped up a trio of Lepisosteids yesterday. I'm sure they're spotted/floridas since that is what is commonly available.

One is slightly bigger than the others at just under 6", and has a 'trident' on it's head. The other two are about 5.5", one of which has dark stripes under it's belly.

You guys weren't kidding about how much variation these species show.

They'll be going into my 180g eventually, but for now after they're out of the 10g QT tank, I'll be putting them in a 20g L grow-out to get two inches out of them before they move in with the bichirs.

I've seen some members list their floridas separate from their spotteds, so I'm curious to see if anyone can ID these juvies? There will be updated pics as they grow towards monster status of course

 

[E_americanus]

nice looking Florida/spotteds! as for members ID'ing them as one or the other, this is generally incorrect unless they have locality data. with captive gars the basic "rules" out there on what is a Florida vs spotted gar don't apply (i.e. 2/3 snout vs eye-opercle measurements).--
--solomon

 

[xander]

nice...i remember my first gars. i still have one of them

 

[Cohazard]

nice looking Florida/spotteds! as for members ID'ing them as one or the other, this is generally incorrect unless they have locality data. with captive gars the basic "rules" out there on what is a Florida vs spotted gar don't apply (i.e. 2/3 snout vs eye-opercle measurements).--
--solomon

Sol, I can remember being in high school (6-7 years ago) and I first started getting serious into aquaria, and I came across pics of your gar tanks on aquatic predators. That inspired me to want them but I couldn't until the past couple years.
I wonder why captive breeding has affected the physiology of the fish so much? Do you suspect hybridization in captive stock?

nice...i remember my first gars. i still have one of them

heheh, thanks man!


I'm really psyched about these lil guys, it's going to be awesome seeing them with the bichir collection



The tank will be complete when I get an AUL

 

[Polypterus]

I wonder why captive breeding has affected the physiology of the fish so much? Do you suspect hybridization in captive stock?

I'm sure Solomon will put his two cents in on this as well but will add mine real quick also.

Gars in captivity generally are under different conditions than wild fish. There are different stresses on the fishes morphology that will alter the fishes general characteristics. All fish really are capable of this type of phenotypic plasticity due to habitat and conditional response..The exact causes for some of these things in Gar remain at this time speculative as enough repeatable information is not available.

Otherwise It really is not Captive breeding but the captive environment that skews this.

 

[Cohazard]

I'm sure Solomon will put his two cents in on this as well but will add mine real quick also.

Gars in captivity generally are under different conditions than wild fish. There are different stresses on the fishes morphology that will alter the fishes general characteristics. All fish really are capable of this type of phenotypic plasticity due to habitat and conditional response..The exact causes for some of these things in Gar remain at this time speculative as enough repeatable information is not available.

Otherwise It really is not Captive breeding but the captive environment that skews this.

Good point. Given the natural rigidity of their morphology (much more so than other fish) combined with their length, the rectangular aquarium definitely is not a favorable means of housing them, but we do the best we can as aquarists.

An idea that just struck me right now is that Lepisosteids could have an increased vulnerability to stunting at a younger age/smaller size than other types of fish, due to the above mentioned restrictions of life in a rectangular aquarium. Stunting at a young age would seem to be the likeliest cause for a break down in the general rule of thumb for ID'g flordas vs. spotted gars that Sol was referring to.

 

[Polypterus]

Good point. Given the natural rigidity of their morphology (much more so than other fish) combined with their length, the rectangular aquarium definitely is not a favorable means of housing them, but we do the best we can as aquarists.

An idea that just struck me right now is that Lepisosteids could have an increased vulnerability to stunting at a younger age/smaller size than other types of fish, due to the above mentioned restrictions of life in a rectangular aquarium. Stunting at a young age would seem to be the likeliest cause for a break down in the general rule of thumb for ID'g flordas vs. spotted gars that Sol was referring to.

There is a certain degree of stunting (maybe delayed growth would be a better term) ,however, other factors seem to be at play with this type of phenotypic variability in captive gars.

One very strong suggestion is that feeding activity and food capture may be a key reason for this. The fish hunt differently and acquire prey (and other food items) differently which can have a direct effect on morphology. No studies as of yet have been done on this with gar but several studies have shown this in comparing wild vs hatchery Trout and Bass species. Another issue may be in the excess of or lack of a specific nutritional component.

As said though this is largely speculative..

 

[ESJBond007]

nice looking Florida/spotted gars..

 

[West1]

Hi, I just swooped up a trio of Lepisosteids yesterday. I'm sure they're spotted/floridas since that is what is commonly available.

One is slightly bigger than the others at just under 6", and has a 'trident' on it's head. The other two are about 5.5", one of which has dark stripes under it's belly.

You guys weren't kidding about how much variation these species show.

They'll be going into my 180g eventually, but for now after they're out of the 10g QT tank, I'll be putting them in a 20g L grow-out to get two inches out of them before they move in with the bichirs.

I've seen some members list their floridas separate from their spotteds, so I'm curious to see if anyone can ID these juvies? There will be updated pics as they grow towards monster status of course

Nice looking Gars Cohazard
Mine was the same size when I bought mine (about 9mnths ago???) and today I just measured him and he is 12" on the money!
The last 3 months I thought he was like 9" or so. They grow fast, or he hit a growth spur.
I feed mine (twice a day) market shrimp, silver sides and sometimes feeders.

By the way, the Gold Saum GT is doing great, my daughter loves that thing

 

[Cohazard]

Nice looking Gars Cohazard
Mine was the same size when I bought mine (about 9mnths ago???) and today I just measured him and he is 12" on the money!
The last 3 months I thought he was like 9" or so. They grow fast, or he hit a growth spur.
I feed mine (twice a day) market shrimp, silver sides and sometimes feeders.

By the way, the Gold Saum GT is doing great, my daughter loves that thing

Whut up man! Good to hear the GT has a great home!

I bet it's huuuge by now I'm still not able to get these gars to take shrimp, but they've started taking blood worms. Hopefully if I keep trying they'll take pellets