New Fish...

[Madding]

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...

Funny, my spotted was also the pickiest eater of my bunch. He was on feeders for several months until a sinking piece of tilapia struck his snout and he struck it out of defense or agitation (he had always ignored it prior to this). After that he took frozen fish every day but never krill or shrimp.

 

[E_americanus]

Funny, my spotted was also the pickiest eater of my bunch. He was on feeders for several months until a sinking piece of tilapia struck his snout and he struck it out of defense or agitation (he had always ignored it prior to this). After that he took frozen fish every day but never krill or shrimp.

yeah, they were pretty well conditioned on the live food, but we also needed the fastest and most natural growth and food, respectively.

it's interesting because some of the SPG's from our work converted to non-live on the first try, others flat out refuse. as long as we have the supply of live we're keeping them on that since live minnows don't pollute the water as much as uneaten food in the research tanks.

the short-body spotted took shrimp the first time offered

will get more recent updates soon--
--solomon

 

[E_americanus]

just a quick update on these fish...here's a shot from last week (7.22.2010)...these fish have grown quite a bit in about two months (which is close to their actual age base on estimated size at capture).

 

[Tendou Souji]

just a quick update on these fish...here's a shot from last week (7.22.2010)...these fish have grown quite a bit in about two months (which is close to their actual age base on estimated size at capture).

Are these really short nose gars? Their nose looks even longer than most florida and spotted gars

 

[barracuda123]

that is gonna be a monster

 

[Madding]

Are these really short nose gars? Their nose looks even longer than most florida and spotted gars

The snouts appear longer in YOY shortnose, the gar sort of "grow into them."

Nice pattern on these little guys too, too bad it goes away.

 

[E_americanus]

Are these really short nose gars? Their nose looks even longer than most florida and spotted gars

we are quite certain these are spotted gars we have seen the adults in the exact same area and have shortnose gars from the area to compare to (as well as previous experience with YOY spotted gars).

keep in mind that snout length is relatively useless when ID'ing YOY Lepisosteus gars other than longnoses...one can use snout length to narrow it down to Florida/spotted/shortnose. one needs other information to move forward from those three. also note that snout length is variable from individual to individual, even within the same cohort.

michael - i'll post pics of the next size grade up from these guys...they have a really cool pattern too, with some green and even rust/orange coloration to their dorsal stripes. of course, my preference is still the wild adults --
--solomon

 

[jasonb]

aww how cute

 

[Tendou Souji]

we are quite certain these are spotted gars we have seen the adults in the exact same area and have shortnose gars from the area to compare to (as well as previous experience with YOY spotted gars).

keep in mind that snout length is relatively useless when ID'ing YOY Lepisosteus gars other than longnoses...one can use snout length to narrow it down to Florida/spotted/shortnose. one needs other information to move forward from those three. also note that snout length is variable from individual to individual, even within the same cohort.

michael - i'll post pics of the next size grade up from these guys...they have a really cool pattern too, with some green and even rust/orange coloration to their dorsal stripes. of course, my preference is still the wild adults --
--solomon

Excuse me, but what are YOY gars? What are the differences between a YOY and a normal gar of the same species?

 

[E_americanus]

Excuse me, but what are YOY gars? What are the differences between a YOY and a normal gar of the same species?

YOY = young of the year fish. this refers to fish that hatched that year, and are currently going through their first growing season, not yet a full year in age.

as far as differences, this depends on species, but with gars the pattern is very different between YOY and later-stage juveniles and adults; this is also when gars have the tail filament/notochord extension off the tail (caudal) fin. most gars in the wild will reach at least 12" in their first year, with many reaching 14-15" depending on species. gator gars can reach much larger in their first year of growth--
--solomon