My new pick up - Cuban Gar

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
vunitrepresenta;477337; said:
hey how was slanted to supposed to know. its not his fault for having a crappy pix. also say you just picked him up then why are you showing older pics? why not show some new ones instead -_-
Click to expand...

Because I don't have a digi cam, tool. That picture was taking in cuba 2 months ago or so, look at the tank, it's a holding tank, not my tank.

I'll take a pic this weekend, and get it developed and scanned next week.

ultimate, I don't blame you for thinking that fish is a gator gar, it looks very similar.

SLANTED - you're right that tail is similar looking, but not really the same. It has more stripes/patterns, and is the wrong colour. Cubans have an orangey/bronze coloured tail. That tropical looks different to every tropical I've seen, looks almost like a cross between a tropical and a gator. And besides, that's an adult tropical, not a juvenile.

But seriously, did you really think that pic of my fish was a tropical? It's a bad pic, and the flahs obscures the tone of the fish etc, but it still looks nothing like a tropical at all. It has swirls on the tail, not stripes, it has no patterning other than a fading lateral stripe, and a broad snout.

This is mine when it was apparently around 5 or 6 inches

attachment.php


And this is a photo from primitivefish.com of a tropical gar around 5 inches. Unmistakably different, this has markings all over, and my fish has none, only a faint lateral stripe.

Tgarsmall1a.JPG



Also SLANTED, about being taken for a ride etc, I'll explain to you. I live in Spain, and it's very very different from the US or England (I'm English).

It's a poor, raw country, and people don't really keep fish, much less predatory fish.

I got in touch with an importer (who doesn't speak any English) who got me a DAMN nice silver aro from South America, and told him I wanted rare predatory fish etc. Then a couple of weeks later he said he might be able to get a "Manjuari" from Cuba.

I looked it up and found out a Manjuari is a Cuban Gar, so I was like yes please :D

So I got 1 imported for me. There was no ride. And to put it into perspective, this country - this importer said in 7 years in the fish business, he has sold less than 10 aros total, and not one gar or snakehead.

Sorry for turning this into an argument etc, but I was a little annoyed by your post. I've been trying for a LONG time to get some proper fish in Spain, over 6 months in fact, and I finally get a kick ass 9 inch Cuban gar, from Cuba, and someone is telling me it's not a Cuban and I should count the lateral lines? GTFOH! It's 100% Cuban gar, I'll post a pic of my own next week.

Also of course I wanted to make sure 100% it really was a Cuban gar, so I sent this same pic to E_Americanus from AP (One of the first owners of Cubans in the US I think, he has 2 and he has tropicals) and Brook, and E_Americanus' reply was "heck yeah! That's a cuban gar alright". So I gave the go ahead that same day.

Excuse me if I am wrong, but it seems like you're disagreeing for the fun of it, as you can see above, Cubans and Tropicals really don't look similar at all, even at 5 or 6 inches.
 
I never once disagreed and I felt I was very cordial and was actually doing a favor. I really don't understand why you are so annoyed. I didn't call you out or say you were posing your gar as a cuban. I belive the point of these forums is to offer healthy discussion of the trade. I was ONLY trying to make sure it was a cuban and not a tropical. For the fourth time, when a tropical gar is completely established in his aquarium it looks MUCH different. However, with the many different mis-haps of the wild manfari turning out to be tropicals, and with your gar not exhibiting the colors of a cuban, I thought just to simply ask a question to make sure it was not a tropical gar that just was stressed due to shipping and did not have his colors, and even did so by saying it was probably just the picture angle. I never once called you or Solomon out and frankly thought I was just offering a helpful question. If you choose to be offended or slighted, then I feel that you are missing the point of these forums and my intentions. I had NO desire of this mutating it something so trivial as this. I thought my small question would be resonded by a "No, it is probably just the camera angle/stress/new environment, thanks for the concern." I appreciate the fact that it is hard to get certain fish in your area. So it is true for me and that is exactly why I was offering a simple concern. I know what it is like to spend time and money on a certain fish, guaranteed, and find out it is in fact something entirely different. I am sorry you feel that I was disagreeing for the sport of it and I am sorry you took my concern for hostility. Next time I will just post a thumbs up or something. . .
 
vunitrepresenta;477346; said:
seems you know alot utlimate thats why you got it wrong. ahaha it even says tropical gar in the bottom of the pix.
Click to expand...

Do you believe everything you see just because it's in a book? Do you know how many pictures of fish I see in books that are incorrectly labled. The tropical gar looks no were near like the one in that pic. I will bet anyone that fish is a alligator gar. The only true way to tell is to have the fish in person and count the rows of teeth in the upper jaw. Alligator gars are the only gars with two rows of teeth in the upper jaw. Just to add here are some pics. The first is a tropical gar and the second is my alligator gar. Now tell me do these two look anything alike? Anyways, sorry to derail.

tropical gar.jpg

gar in 750 and cactus flower 011.jpg
 
SLANTED;477779; said:
I never once disagreed and I felt I was very cordial and was actually doing a favor. I really don't understand why you are so annoyed. I didn't call you out or say you were posing your gar as a cuban. I belive the point of these forums is to offer healthy discussion of the trade. I was ONLY trying to make sure it was a cuban and not a tropical. For the fourth time, when a tropical gar is completely established in his aquarium it looks MUCH different. However, with the many different mis-haps of the wild manfari turning out to be tropicals, and with your gar not exhibiting the colors of a cuban, I thought just to simply ask a question to make sure it was not a tropical gar that just was stressed due to shipping and did not have his colors, and even did so by saying it was probably just the picture angle. I never once called you or Solomon out and frankly thought I was just offering a helpful question. If you choose to be offended or slighted, then I feel that you are missing the point of these forums and my intentions. I had NO desire of this mutating it something so trivial as this. I thought my small question would be resonded by a "No, it is probably just the camera angle/stress/new environment, thanks for the concern." I appreciate the fact that it is hard to get certain fish in your area. So it is true for me and that is exactly why I was offering a simple concern. I know what it is like to spend time and money on a certain fish, guaranteed, and find out it is in fact something entirely different. I am sorry you feel that I was disagreeing for the sport of it and I am sorry you took my concern for hostility. Next time I will just post a thumbs up or something. . .
Click to expand...

Hey SLANTED, no no, don't worry about it, of course you are free to disagree, argue, whatever. Hey if you REALLY believe the pic is a tropical, then continue your case ;)

If you were genuine in your concern etc, then no hard feelings, I just read you wrong. For some reason to me it seemed like you were disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. I guess because even that (bad) photo to me looks nothing like a young tropical gar. Even though the pic is not very good, nobody else has doubted it's a cuban gar, including gar experts that ID'd it for me before I went ahead with the order.

Because to be honest I was suspicious too. This country is so backward, you can't get anything here, whether it's tropical fish or nice food to eat or a DVD with subtitles :)

So I was VERY doubtful that it was really a Cuban gar, and I even expressed doubt to the importer, that's when he got me the photo.

Prior to this order I'd been looking at every gar photo I could find etc, and when I saw the photo I thought yep that's a cuban, and when solomon ID'd it then I was sure it was a cuban, then when it finally arrived yesterday morning I was 100% sure it was a cuban ;)

So no hard feelings about taking offense, I honestly just thought you were disagreeing for the fun of it, that's all.

Anyway I'll take some shots of him soon and get them developed.
 
sorry to derail, i believe all Atractosteus have two prominent rows of teeth in the upper jaw. i remember also being told that even Lepisosteus has two rows in the upper jaw, but the second row is very tiny, leaving only a single prominent row.

anyway, looking forward to more pics!
 
Infblue yes I've heard the same thing :) That the atrac species are indentifiable by the 2 rows of teeth.

BTW looking at that fish now, and looking at every photo of a tropical gar I can find, I'm inclined to agree with ultimate. It really does look like a gator gar, even down to the prominent rounded bit on the end of the snout, and the whole colouration and tail. I've never seen a tropical with that colouration or a tail quite like that. Whatever it is, it looks cool.

I thought my gar was going to be hard to feed, as he was fed live fish by the exporters, and yesterday he would only eat bloodworms, ignored a host of other things I offered him. Luckily he's just chomped a few pieces of raw prawn, by repeatedly throwing the prawn at great velocity right in front of his mouth.
 
rumblesushi;477899; said:
Infblue yes I've heard the same thing :) That the atrac species are indentifiable by the 2 rows of teeth.

BTW looking at that fish now, and looking at every photo of a tropical gar I can find, I'm inclined to agree with ultimate. It really does look like a gator gar, even down to the prominent rounded bit on the end of the snout, and the whole colouration and tail. I've never seen a tropical with that colouration or a tail quite like that. Whatever it is, it looks cool.

Thank you. Hey rumblesushi, only the A spatula or alligator gar is the only one with two rows of teeth. I know that for fact! Anyways, how's the new cuban gar doing?
Click to expand...
 
The gar's doing great actually, he ate bloodworms yesterday about an hour after being in the tank, and now he's whacking prawns. He also snapped at my cobra snakehead when the channa stole a piece of prawn :D

Pretty active for a gar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom