Sorry for Posting another ID Confirmation Post

[Polypterus]

They had another there that was slightly larger and more dominant that looked the same. The other side of his nose/mouth was damaged by the other gar but has healed nicely though doesn't look 100% normal.

I think that actually explains the head morphology being slightly off and a bit different for a typical Shortnosed. It is not uncommon to have these fish develop unusually short wide snouts in captivity.

It should be noted that this type of stunting in gars is not like the typical stunting of a fish.. This is a stunting (or reduction if you will) at a certian developmental phase but not really a stunting of the fish it self. These types of affects on a gars morphology usually occurs very early in life and can be caused by a number of factors. Diet, water quality, cramped space / overstocking can all cause this to some extent.

As a side note, Manipulation of snout development is actually being investigated to reduce cannibalism in gars for aquaculture purposes.

 

[ViperCLKGTR]

Stunted or not that is a bad @$$ looking Gar.

 

[Techtress]

So I snapped this almost top view (more like 3/4) of the top of its head for you guys. There is probably a little bit of distortion from the tank glass. You can tell how the end of his mouth healed a little funny, its been like that for a year and doesn't seem to change or affect his feeding.

Interesting that stunting affects different parts of a gar than most tropical fish.

 

[uting]

looks like a shortnose.

 

[E_americanus]

compare to proportions in snout of a wild individual: