Whats the diff. between a trop. and spot gar?

[West1]

I have a spotted gar and just wanted to know the diff between the two. Im sure pattern is involved, but dont know what to look for? Is size also diff?

 

[demjor19]

I have a spotted gar and just wanted to know the diff between the two. Im sure pattern is involved, but dont know what to look for? Is size also diff?

pattern is very inconsistant from fish to fish...so that is a poor way to differenciate between species. tropical gar are one of the Atractosteus species so they have a broader snout and a more prominant second row of teeth in the upper jaw. florida/spotteds are one of the Lepisosteus species. for the most part they have a more narrow snout and a less prominant second row of teeth in the upper jaw. most of the differences are proportions...not pattern...although pattern is normally distinctive from species to species.

hope this helps a bit. solomon or richard may be able to clarify this a bit more.

 

[West1]

Oops. I meant a spotted and a florida gar. Whats the diff between the two. How can you tell them apart being that a lot of people have some trouble I.D.-ing them

 

[demjor19]

Oops. I meant a spotted and a florida gar. Whats the diff between the two. How can you tell them apart being that a lot of people have some trouble I.D.-ing them

there are no morphological differences between the two. it basicaly comes down to the location or range in which they were collected.

 

[West1]

Oh, I see. Thanks

 

[E_americanus]

Oh, I see. Thanks

there are actually morphological differences between the two, but they are very subtle and often indistinguishable...and molecular data would show at least slight differences as well. locality information is your best bet in confirming what the fish is, but this really only works with wild caught fishes, and not very useful with LFS fishes.

hence, we generally ID these LFS fishes as "Florida/spotted gars"...it simplifies the matter until we get further conclusive (and practical) evidence as to telling the two fishes apart--
--solomon

 

[demjor19]

there are actually morphological differences between the two, but they are very subtle and often indistinguishable...and molecular data would show at least slight differences as well. locality information is your best bet in confirming what the fish is, but this really only works with wild caught fishes, and not very useful with LFS fishes.

hence, we generally ID these LFS fishes as "Florida/spotted gars"...it simplifies the matter until we get further conclusive (and practical) evidence as to telling the two fishes apart--
--solomon

just curious...what are some supposed morphological differences? if i was to try and differenciate between the two what would i be looking for?

i think we ruled out the "2/3 rule".

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Don't Spotted's lack the bony throat plate of the Florida or is it the other way around?

 

[xander]

this is interesting.

 

[Polypterus]

Don't Spotted's lack the bony throat plate of the Florida or is it the other way around?

It is the spotteds that have the plates and the Florida that lacks them. What good this is to ID them is questionable. In life these plates are pretty much transparent and they are of no use to a hobbyist as you basically have to cut the operculum off to get to them. The plates are useful to ID questionable fish sitting in formalin for 20 years...

There are morphologic characters that can be used to distinguish the two but these characteristics and differing proportions are not easily seen unless you know what your looking for. A reference that is worth looking at for these differing characters is : Suttkus, R. D., 1963., Order Lepisostei. Pp. 61-88. In: Fishes of the Western North Atlantic., Sears Foundation for Marine Research

This is the best comprehensive reference that spells out the min / maximum and average meritistic and proportional traits of Spotted and Florida gars. Even with the above, captive hobby fish have shown differing traits from wild fish so it is not always clear.