Sorry...Doesn't look like a Florida to me

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rojowe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2009
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Hey guys,
Finally picked up my gar. I was going to pick up a Florida from the LFS but they want $75 for a 6-8'' so I said no thanks. The guy I bought my tank off actually has a 600 gallon pond with a Gator Gar, RTC, TSNxRTC, Florida Gar....and he went and picked up a small Gator Gar and this guy which he thinks is a Spotted Gar. Anyway since it's the smallest Gar he had he sold him to me for $30, which is what he paid for it. This guy is abit over 12'' maybe 14'' max. I looked at the ID Sticky and I am still having trouble figuring out what he is...hopefully you guys can help.

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it's a florida more than likely, they are very hard to tell the difference unless you have a definite one of both to compare
 
It's just difficult to tell the difference IMO...some Florida's have a sort of stripe running down both sides, this guy definitely doesn't...then his tail fin looks identical to the Croc Gar's tail....I don't have a clue....I would be very happy if he is just a Florida which is what I wanted in the first place
 
rojowe;3695507; said:
It's just difficult to tell the difference IMO...some Florida's have a sort of stripe running down both sides, this guy definitely doesn't...then his tail fin looks identical to the Croc Gar's tail....I don't have a clue....I would be very happy if he is just a Florida which is what I wanted in the first place
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Once they get past a certain size, most Florida's lose that "stripe" down their sides. Mine are both about 14", and neither of them have the stripe anymore. They have very similar spotting to yours, except their spots are larger.

I would think its a Florida, unless you know for sure that it was caught outside of Florida, and not just bought from an LFS. Like said before, very unlikely its a Spotted, unless it was wild caught somewhere besides Florida.

Its a nice looking gar either way, and good pickup! $30 is a great price for that size gar.
 
agreed with the above, almost definate florida(unless locality is known). amongst the lepisosteus sp, floridas & spotteds are noticable for markings all over the body; short and long nose gars tend to lack pattern anywhere asides from the later line. even then, it's no sure fire way of telling between species, as individuals can vary greatly.
 
it's a Florida gar, 99.9% sure. regarding pattern, it's not a good way to ID gars, especially between Floridas and spotteds, and i'm not sure what you mean by the tail looking like a croc gar as tail pattern is also highly variable, and form is also pretty variable.
either way, nice looking fish and good pick up for the price--
--solomon
 
yep florida as above
 
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