what's in the box...with a quick [video] answer...

[E_americanus]

I look forward to your pm. Another question, have you noticed any permanent fin damage on your cubans? 3 of mine show some on either the dorsal or anal fins. It seems to mirror that of one of my gators, which was the result of a bite from a tankmate. Kinda had me wondering about stocking density and feeding for these guys at the farm.

depends on what you consider to be fin damage...frayed fins will of course generate in most cases, but if you are referring to "crimped" fins, then that is often a side-effect of re-growth and/or farmed fish at high densities (we see this in trout and pike and plenty of other farmed fishes). some will have smaller fins than usual, but gars seem to show more of the crimping of fins toward the edges.

it's nothing really damaging to the fish, but it will look somewhat different than what we see in wild or wild-caught individuals. if you have a photo we can further clarify, but i was answering based on my guess as to what you are seeing--
--solomon

 

[pharmaecopia]

Here are some pics, hopefully there is enough detail that you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[channarox]

Where are you getting all these Cubans?

 

[KNH]

Toyin has some for sale.

 

[xander]

this is getting pretty ridiculous Sol

haha, can we know more about the study?

 

[E_americanus]

Here are some pics, hopefully there is enough detail that you can see what I'm talking about.

thanks for posting the pics - some of that is the typical "crimping" effect we see from hatchery fishes, but the caudal fin issues may be a combination of that and some fin damage from other fish. the crimping is variable in how that changes as the fish grows, but as long as the caudal fin issue is damage and not a true deformity, it should heal up normally.

i have noticed a few abnormalities here and there on the 2nd batch of fish (which would be your first), but the 1st and 3rd seem pretty uniform overall. the first batch, with the exception of one fish with a weird opercular development issue (fish is perfectly healthy though), all of them have no issues/problems at all.

again, the general cause is these are hatchery-raised fish, so there are going to be anomalies we don't see in other sources. particularly since this is a pretty small gene-pool overall too.

Where are you getting all these Cubans?

all of them are originally coming from the CBG farm in Cuba, they go to various sources throughout the world and that's how we are getting them here and you guys are getting them over there. in fact, most of the CBGs that become available from the farm are going to Asia by the hundreds!

Toyin has some for sale.

nice. how 'bout that sweater vest? couldn't resist--

this is getting pretty ridiculous Sol

haha, can we know more about the study?

haha yeah, i am thinking it's getting a little ridiculous at this point too...lots of fishes to manage/feed at my own place. luckily we will be able to move several groups out to labs in the coming months.

as for the studies, there are a couple phases as we are planning some long-term work with the fish now. we are waiting on hearing back on some grant funding, for now i was interested in some growth data under different treatments (can only get into so much on the forums, so shoot me an email and we can discuss further).

if we include the two 7-8 year old fish, there are 45 in the general vicinity --
--solomon

 

[channarox]

Wow, hopefully they become more available, and cheaper here.
Can't wait to get my hands on one.

 

[Wiggles92]

Nice, more Cuban gars!

This batch should bump the total count of Cuban gars in the U.S. up to around 80 or so, huh?

 

[E_americanus]

Nice, more Cuban gars!

thanks! yeah, managing all these fishes is becoming a full-time job on top of my other full-time jobs though. spent most of today dealing with all 3 groups for various reasons. looking forward to getting them to our school lab where water changes will be constant.

This batch should bump the total count of Cuban gars in the U.S. up to around 80 or so, huh?

far less than that IMO; i think a conservative estimate is ~60 at best. there were only 6 brought in back in 2004, of which only 2 are still alive (maybe 3, but one is in CA and we never hear anything about it). the 2007 batch suffered a good amount of mortality since people got them very small and killed them off. i would guess at best there are maybe 10-15 fish still alive from that order.

...and that brings us to the recent shipment group.

as mentioned earlier, hundreds go to Asia from the farm or are passed through suppliers to Asia from the farm. we're close to the source, and other than the obvious embargo issues, there just isn't much demand in the US/Canada--
--solomon

 

[Wiggles92]

far less than that IMO; i think a conservative estimate is ~60 at best. there were only 6 brought in back in 2004, of which only 2 are still alive (maybe 3, but one is in CA and we never hear anything about it). the 2007 batch suffered a good amount of mortality since people got them very small and killed them off. i would guess at best there are maybe 10-15 fish still alive from that order.

...and that brings us to the recent shipment group.

as mentioned earlier, hundreds go to Asia from the farm or are passed through suppliers to Asia from the farm. we're close to the source, and other than the obvious embargo issues, there just isn't much demand in the US/Canada--
--solomon

Wow, I thought that there would be more out there; I didn't realize that the first two importations didn't do very well to quite that extent.

I'm pretty sure that the CA one is for sale now. I saw it posted on that other fish forum for $1550; it's supposed to be 20" or larger. I would doubt that anyone else has been able to bring in Cuban gars of that size recently, and, from what I can tell from what you have said about these gars, it seems that they grow pretty slow which would imply that the one for sale is an older gar.