Will a severely stunted gator gar grow properly?

[Pomatomus]

Almost all fish have "indeterminate growth". They technically never stop growing, but it can slow down to a negligible amount, or they grow in other ways (like getting "taller").

I am 100% sure it will get larger. It just might be a slow process with a much smaller max size. I hope it hasn't affected its health too much.

 

[E_americanus]

I figured you knew which gar that was being talked about; the clarification was more for everyone else plus it gave a bit of a timeline for the growth (or lack thereof).

Do you think that a bonsai alligator gar that just doesn't grow would get larger than an alligator gar that was stunted or vice versa?

hard to separate the two in many cases...captivity stunts large predatory fishes in nearly all cases in some way or another, so really hard to say. if the gar's natural genetics are toward being a runt, it will grow slow and have a smaller max size (again, relative to say "max" since growth is indeterminate growth as was pointed out below...although most should already know that), if it's stunted, it's hard to predict if the fish will snap out of it, grow more slowly, not grow, etc. we can only really just guess--

Almost all fish have "indeterminate growth". They technically never stop growing, but it can slow down to a negligible amount, or they grow in other ways (like getting "taller").

I am 100% sure it will get larger. It just might be a slow process with a much smaller max size. I hope it hasn't affected its health too much.

i would imagine we are taking the "indeterminate growth" issue as a given...yes, all fish continue to grow throughout their lives, but we're talking more or less about appreciable growth. i agree that it will likely get larger...how large and how fast are very tough to say, but almost certainly to a smaller max size (for the individual and def for the species) than if it had had regular growth early on.--
--solomon