will add a few updates of this group of fish...here's a photo taken on June 29, about 28 days after the original post:
New Fish...
- Thread starter E_americanus
- Start date
photo taken on July 12...compare with late June photo (you can use the fathead minnows for scale).
will try to get updated photos later this week--
--solomon
will try to get updated photos later this week--
--solomon
xander;4301910; said:
haha, the first question is essentially the first chapter of my dissertation, and therefore complex to answer (especially with where these fish came from).
we would expect them to have a faster growth rate than FL gars though. i'm not tracking growth rate with these fish as closely as we did for our experiments last year (not nearly enough time or resources), but i can put together a decent estimate to compare to the other fish.
i'll get photos up later, but i just measured today, and the weirdo shortnose (which eats like a gator gar) - this is the first gar in the new gar quiz thread - grew from ~2" on June 1 to currently just over 10" as of July 19. that's some major growth (and he's still pigging out)!--
--solomon
xander;4301945; said:2-10" in a little over a month?! is that even healthy?? looking forward to your updates as usualit'd be great if you could keep the shortnoes in the original gar den (speaking of which, some full tank shots would be nice)
we've actually determined, or at least now hypothesize with good evidence, that shortnose gars are actually among the fastest growing gar species. not as fast as the gator gars, but definitely up in the higher ranks. we need to do a lot more work with shortnose gars as they have been comparatively poorly studied in an already poorly studied group of fishes overall.
it's not unusual for most gar species to get up to 13-15" in their first year in the wild...particularly in populations where they have a very short growing season to do it in (growth rate will be faster). this fish isn't held in particularly special circumstances...no power-feeding, and temp is at about 75-77F, temps it would be exposed to during this time of year in its natural habitat. food is in generally good supply, but not necessarily constant (he does finish off his minnows and then they tank is empty of food for periods of time). so i don't have any doubts as to its growth rate pertaining to health.
not sure where the shorty will go once he's a bit larger...GD makes sense, and i'll likely have some space to fill in there once i do some shuffling (and would make a good comparison to the Kansas shortnose i got from Richard years back).
hopefully more updates soon (have some other shots of other individuals and species to put up soon too) --
--solomon
Nice looking gar.
In my experience keeping YOY longnose, shortnose, florida and spotted I have also noticed that the shortnose has grown the fastest in the shortest period of time, and that is not even with powerfeeding. He has also been the easiest to feed a variety of foods, from shrimp to krill to tilapia and even snatching pellets meant for the polypterus.
In my experience keeping YOY longnose, shortnose, florida and spotted I have also noticed that the shortnose has grown the fastest in the shortest period of time, and that is not even with powerfeeding. He has also been the easiest to feed a variety of foods, from shrimp to krill to tilapia and even snatching pellets meant for the polypterus.
Another prof that shornose gars grow very fast. Someone doubted me before about my shortnose gar that grew from 4.5" to 13" in a month but it was power feed. Now it slowed down at 16".
I know my shortnose gars grew pretty dang fast. I had my Florida's for something like six months longer than my shorties, but my longest shorty is an inch longer than my longest florida now, and has been for several months. They are very fast growers, and as noted above will accept a wider variety of foods. My Florida's prefer feeders and pellets, while the shorties will take pellets, shrimp, tilapia, feeders, and even earthworms with equal enthusiasm.
Honestly my pickiest eater is the spotted gar. He only really gets excited about live, he'll eat small pieces of shrimp if I bang them on his nose, and he completely ignores pellets.
Oh yah, they all LOVE freeze dried krill. Maybe its the orange color...
Honestly my pickiest eater is the spotted gar. He only really gets excited about live, he'll eat small pieces of shrimp if I bang them on his nose, and he completely ignores pellets.
Oh yah, they all LOVE freeze dried krill. Maybe its the orange color...
