"short-body" spotted gar

[E_americanus]

more info on this fish to come...has been interesting to follow developmentally speaking. with all the short-body fishes one sees of other species/groups, we rarely see short-body gars.

pic was taken with my phone, will hopefully get better ones soon.

 

[neoprodigy]

wow neat!

 

[xander]

interesting at best... is it wild caught?

 

[RedDwarf]

That's one cool looking gar, now only if you can fix the gene then mass produce them, they will be the new tropical gar everyone wants.

 

[E_americanus]

thanks for the comments guys.

xander, to answer your question, the fish was spawned from wild parents. a result of the spawning of the juveniles for our experiments, so i've raised up the fish since it was an egg.--
--solomon

 

[xander]

that's interesting, i was under the impression short bodied fish were a result of genetic inbreeding? hence usually seen in captive bred fish?

 

[E_americanus]

that's interesting, i was under the impression short bodied fish were a result of genetic inbreeding? hence usually seen in captive bred fish?

not necessarily; they are genetic anomalies, yes, and normally these fish wouldn't make it in the wild (compared to "normal" fish). we see them in captivity more because this would be an artificial environment, so anomalies survive where they wouldn't in the wild.

if a fish farm uses the same stocks over and over for their spawning, then yes, you would see an increase in said anomalies relative to a form of inbreeding.

this is also why you see more pigment anomalies in captivity than in the wild (a gold gar would be more easily picked off by predators than a normal pattern).--
--solomon

PS-- also, our fish were spawned from "parent" fish from multiple populations.

 

[xander]

not necessarily; they are genetic anomalies, yes, and normally these fish wouldn't make it in the wild (compared to "normal" fish). we see them in captivity more because this would be an artificial environment, so anomalies survive where they wouldn't in the wild.

if a fish farm uses the same stocks over and over for their spawning, then yes, you would see an increase in said anomalies relative to a form of inbreeding.

this is also why you see more pigment anomalies in captivity than in the wild (a gold gar would be more easily picked off by predators than a normal pattern).--
--solomon

PS-- also, our fish were spawned from "parent" fish from multiple populations.

(again, mfk still doesn't have a damn yoda smiley...)

when you say our fish, do you mean everyone's fish in general or the cubans? i dont really get that last line.

 

[E_americanus]

(again, mfk still doesn't have a damn yoda smiley...)

when you say our fish, do you mean everyone's fish in general or the cubans? i dont really get that last line.

gotcha. yeah, when i say "our fish" i mean my fish for the experiments. these were fish that richard and myself collected from various inland lake populations, this way we would have a decent genetic mix in the juveniles.

the Cubans in the trade are farmed, so there is likely more inbreeding there, as with tropicals and gators. FL gars likely have a bit of both as there are still a lot of wild-caught fish that come in. longnoses and shortnoses are likely primarily wild-caught individuals.--
--solomon

 

[benzjamin13]

Nice! You said that "we" rarely seen it. So have you seen them before?