red finned longnose

[snowy]

to the OP -

in short, some longnose gars (and shortnose and spotteds for that matter) have more colorful fins than others. gars are quite variable in their pattern, and some do have brighter red/orange coloration...and note we are talking about coloration, not the blood streaks from stress as Spatula was referring to (which does happen as well).



i know for a fact that the gar in the second color did have more orange/reddish fins and that it's not an artifact of flash because i didn't use flash when i took that photo many years ago

i'll have to dig up some other examples, but i've kept (and richard has kept even more) longnoses over the years and the pattern in fins is tremendously variable (relatively speaking).

certain foods with carotenoids (krill, various pellets, etc) will help with coloration, but if the fish doesn't have the genetic make-up to develop the really bright pattern, you won't see it expressed as much as in some of the more unique individuals--
--solomon

Do you, by any chance, know the origin of either the gar in the second picture or the specimen in this picture ( its also from primitive fishes.com, so I am assuming that you took the picture and or kept the gar).

Thanks!

 

[snowy]

Do you, by any chance, know the origin of either the gar in the second picture or the specimen in this picture ( its also from primitive fishes.com, so I am assuming that you took the picture and or kept the gar).

Thanks!

sorry, could not get the picture on. Anyways, here it is.

 

[snowy]

 

[snowy]

Fin coloration in longnosed can be very locality specific and is highly variable. Diet most definitely has a bit of a part in this but specific genetics is what really brings it out. I've never seen a fish in this area with Red or orange fins they are always yellow. Feeding them a high carotenoid diet did not change that much it just made the yellow brighter. On the other hand I have had a few fish from different southern populations that showed a reddish tint and this would brighten significantly with diet high in carotenoids.

Is there any region (ex. deep south, north, midwest) with a relatively high percentage of red/orange finned longnoses? Any particular states or provinces?

Thanks!

 

[snowy]

 

[snowy]

^^^^^^^ bump!

 

[Polypterus]

Patience is a virtue that you should learn dude... And I'd like to ask you politely to not use Pics off of Primitivefish.com as an Avatar without asking permission. Those are copyrighted photos and we would appreciate that you go through proper channels before using them.

To answer your question on localities, yes I do know of some with a distinct red tone to the fins. I'm not however going to give these out on an Internet forum. I do not in general give out locality specific information about my research.

 

[Polypterus]

Would it be safe to put Alligator Gars in this category as well? Allot of the Gator Gars I see online from Texas are almost a silver color with red/pink fins.
Then again a majority of those are ones that have been caught fishing.
They almost look like a totally different species of Gator Gar because they are more silver than dark brown/olive.

One word.... Environment

Do not expect a wild fish to show the traits of a captive one and do not expect a captive one to show wild traits. You can not use wild fish benchmarks for captive fish and vis versa..

 

[E_americanus]

sorry, could not get the picture on. Anyways, here it is.

definitely agree with Perun's comments on the fish in question and use of the photos...and yes, i took the photo of this fish as well. i will have to check my records, but i do know the photo above is of a wild-caught fish, but the first photo you used (below the fishing shot) may be a captive individual OR MIGHT be the same one pictured above...this was many years ago, so will have to get back to you.

this just lends to our comments on the high degree of variability both from genetics and the environment...i have captured several fish from this same general locality and some are MUCH more differently patterned than others.

Perun should post the pic of one of his amazing green longnoses, which, IMO is one of the best i have seen--
--solomon

 

[E_americanus]

PS-- just for fun, anyone want to ID the fish below the longnose in the above photo?