Ranking of Gars

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
By hybrids, you mean Spotted/Florida hybrids or Shortnose/Spotted hybrids? Or something else? I guess somewhere between one and two percent of the "big gar" in the upper Trinity River are Croc III hybrids.

Cheers,



Don
 
the rarest IMO is by far xanthic florida, or croc II. no others come close. i can get cuban, trop or anything like that. cant find or get either of those 2.
 
thefishguy7;3286960; said:
Cubans by far in the US ... if you're in SGP, GL finding a trop ..

I'd say:
Cuban
Trop
Shortnose
Longnose
Gator
FL/Spotted

Only reason IMO shortnose are hard to find is because they they are less desirable gars, bland coloration, skittish
Click to expand...
Florida and spotted gar are 2 different fish. That's almost like saying Siberian/Bengal Tiger. Spotted gar are no where near as common as the Florida gar in the trade.
 
i have a florida:woot: it was the olny gar on the list in the last 4yrs at my lfs...so to me they all are hard to get.
 
hey all, it's been a while since i've been on site...lots of gar work going on in the field and experiments. anyway, here is my opinion on the "rarity" ranking of the gars by the species first, from rarest to most common (this primarily refers to what is available in the trade in the United States) :

Cuban gar (rare in LFS, not available in wild)
tropical gar (rare in LFS, but more attainable than Cuban; not available in wild)
spotted gar (rare in LFS, attainable in wild, but not commonly sought after)
shortnose gar (uncommon but does show up in LFS, attainable in wild)
alligator gar (frequently in LFS, attainable in wild)
longnose gar (frequently in LFS, attainable in wild)
Florida gar (common in both LFS and wild - latter if you are in Florida)

including the morphs is sort of asinine as they are generally overpriced IMO. but the general trend goes like this (disregard species, we are just looking at genetic condition) :

albino (very rarely encountered)
xanthic "gold"
leucistic "white"
melanistic "black"

in terms of hybrids, it's also up for opinion and depends somewhat on availability...here is a ranking based on what we know thus far (and my opinions) :

croc III & II (former is seen in the wild, not in the hobby; latter likely exists in the wild, but hasn't been documented. only one conclusive specimen on record)
croc I (was original hybrid available in the hobby, not seen much any more)
shortnose x longnose (hard to diagnose, but does exist in the wild, possibly randomly in the hobby)

that's what i got so far--
--solomon
 
Interesting list and comments, Solomon. If you wanted to find out how easy it was to create Croc II hybrids, would you start with a male Spotted and a female Alligator Gar, or would you try it the other way around? It seems the Croc III hybrids are mostly, or always, the result of Longnose eggs being fertilized by male Gators. Might that indicate that you'd be more likely to be successful with the male Spotted and female Gator? Or vice versa?

Cheers,



Don
 
solomon by trops being unavailable in the wild you mean in the US and not Mexico right?

also, there was a show published in 2006 i think, it was called "Wild Secrets" and had an episode, "Cuban gar: Survivor of the Swamp". do you happen to have it? or can anyone get it? i'd really appreciate it if you could send it my way:)
 
xander;3297250; said:
solomon by trops being unavailable in the wild you mean in the US and not Mexico right?
Click to expand...

yes...particularly since Mexico is not part of the United States, and therefore doesn't come under the conditions of the rankings i mentioned :)


also, there was a show published in 2006 i think, it was called "Wild Secrets" and had an episode, "Cuban gar: Survivor of the Swamp". do you happen to have it? or can anyone get it? i'd really appreciate it if you could send it my way:)
Click to expand...

i have never seen the show, but i am also interested in tracking it down. will have to see what can be dug up--
--solomon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom