Red Gar, Platinum Gar, Snowball Gar, Longnose Gar

[Freshwaterfishlover]

my original plan in my tank was/is to have 2 Gars. I currently have 1-15” or so Florida Gar. I very much would like a Longnose Gar, but 5” Longnose Gars are hard to find and anything bigger then that is near impossible to find. I have tried a 5” Longnose Gar, but was eaten by my other Gar. So may have to give up on having a Longnose. now I have been looking at other Gars. One that I have no interest in at all are Alligator Gars.

few questions:
saw Red Gars sold on a Website for $550 I may be interested in.
Are there true Red Gars?
How to tell if it’s a true Red Gar? Hear there fakes out there that loose it’s red in a few months.
what kind of Gars are Red Gars?

are Platinum and Snowball Gars the same fish?

 

[Tobiassorensen]

my original plan in my tank was/is to have 2 Gars. I currently have 1-15” or so Florida Gar. I very much would like a Longnose Gar, but 5” Longnose Gars are hard to find and anything bigger then that is near impossible to find. I have tried a 5” Longnose Gar, but was eaten by my other Gar. So may have to give up on having a Longnose. now I have been looking at other Gars. One that I have no interest in at all are Alligator Gars.

few questions:
saw Red Gars sold on a Website for $550 I may be interested in.
Are there true Red Gars?
How to tell if it’s a true Red Gar? Hear there fakes out there that loose it’s red in a few months.
what kind of Gars are Red Gars?

are Platinum and Snowball Gars the same fish?

An red gar? You mean an axantic gar? They are even harder to come by then an platinum gar. Hey vincentwugwg your the man when it comes to rare morphs what you have to say about this?

 

[Freshwaterfishlover]

Funny I saw a “Red Gar” for $550 and a Platinum Gar for $1,400. Back to my original questions.

 

[kno4te]

No true red gars but bred that color. Vincent had one for sure and it held its color. Seen some others I’ve seen as it grew the red faded.

Believe the snowball and platinum are varying degrees of bred leucistism. Hope I spelled that right.

 

[Freshwaterfishlover]

Believe the snowball and platinum are varying degrees of bred leucistism. Hope I spelled that right.

so Snowball would be pure White and Platinum is Silver? There Alligators Gars? See Platinum for $1,400.

what type of Gars are Red Gars?

 

[kno4te]

so Snowball would be pure White and Platinum is Silver? There Alligators Gars? See Platinum for $1,400.

what type of Gars are Red Gars?

Yes, believe it to be the grading. Seen the gator gars like this. But I’m sure fl gars are similar as they are also bred in different colors

The red gars have been captive bred fl gars.

 

[sunnysjourney]

I kept 3 red gars for about 2 years. Monster aquarium has some in stock currently (I think). I had to sell them because they didnt seem to grow at all after hitting 12”. Behavior wise they're very similar to the florida guys. They aren't aggressive and aren't gluttonous like gators. Super chill and perfect for a medium monster tank setup.



I'll try and answer your questions:
1) Don't know what you mean by "true" red gars, but as you can see from the pic above, they aren't like super red or anything, I've seen them called as 'sunset gars' as well. And the colors got lighter over time. They were redder when smaller, the above guy was 12" at the time.
2) And as for fakes, again I trust monster and I just went with him, the color was the same(ish) for the whole two years, they look exactly like the above pic in the new owner's aquarium too.
3) I thought they were just a variant of florida gars but now I'm not sure tbh. They stopped growing at around 12-13"... So maybe there's something else in the mix? Or maybe Reds tend towards dwarfism..? idk.

 

[Chicxulub]

Red gars are Florida gars (FLG), Lepisosteus platyrhincus, displaying a genentic mutation called erythrism. Golden gars are also FLG, but displaying a mutation called xanthism.

I've never bothered to look into whether plats and snows are leucistic or albino, but those are typically alligator gars.

Black gars are melanistic. They are most often in the hobby as FLG's or alligator gars.

Most of these odd colored gars will keep their color if they're legit. It's nearly impossible to fake the colored gars, but one can get something very similar to a white gar by using white tank treatment.

Hope that helps.

 

[sunnysjourney]

Red gars are Florida gars (FLG), Lepisosteus platyrhincus, displaying a genentic mutation called erythrism.

The interesting thing I’ve experienced is that the 3 reds I had stopped growing at around 12-13”. I had a regular FLG that I grew out with these guys and he surpassed their size pretty quickly. And ultimately the main reason l got rid of my reds.. they were getting too small for my tanks.

 

[vincentwugwg]

I've had a group of red gars that also stopped growing at 12-14 inches as well... They have been with me for a good 4 years. Their 'red' color becomes more intense if they are fed food with color enhancers.