# Gars



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

i'm relatively new to this board, and have enjoyed browsing through the threads so far. i haven't found any major ones on gars, except for Polypterus's very good info thread in the scientific info section. ...so i thought i would start one here









does anyone here keep any gars, if so, what species do you keep?

i guess i'll start things off --

i currently keep the following:

longnose
shortnose
alligator
'crocodile' (Florida x alligator hybrid)
Cuban

i have also kept Florida and spotted in the past. the pic in my sig is of my Cuban gar.

looking forward to seeing what you guys keep! great board from what i have seen so far--
--solomon


----------



## Peacock (Feb 23, 2004)

i just keep a single spotted atm..


----------



## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

Currently Keeping Tropical and Longnosed,

Pretty much kept all of them, except for the Cuban,

One of my absolutly Favorite fish,

I've been both keeping and Catching gars for close to 20 years now, 
First fish I Ever kept was a Longnosed caught out of the lake I lived on.


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

Polypterus said:


> Currently Keeping Tropical and Longnosed,
> 
> Pretty much kept all of them, except for the Cuban,
> 
> ...


 hey polypterus,

did you happen to have a picture of your tropical gar? i see you are located in detroit michigan, i think i remember a post you made on endlicheri club about it a while back. i will send you a message about it. either way, good to hear from another gar enthusiast!

peacock,

i want to see more pics of your spotted! from what i saw its a pretty sweet looking fish!

thanks for posting guys, hopefully we'll hear from more gar people--
--solomon


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

Polypterus,

here is a link to the discussion we had on the endlicheri club. you mentioned in a PM that you hadnt been there in a while, and i wasnt sure if you had the auxilliary link to the site (its being temporarily hosted at a different location). anyway, i replied to your posts to my tropical gar thread here. you can see my clarifications on species, ID, etc. if you can't get to the site, let me know; CDM (one of the mods there) sent me the link to the temp site.--
--solomon

Endlicheri Club Tropical Gar Thread


----------



## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

I have long suspected it to be a Hybrid just not a Hybrid of a Flordia
and Alligator, but instead a Shortnose X alligator,
(PM explains a bit more adding this for the rest here)

Reason I've never confined myself to calling it a tropical on any Pic,
One person I trust much, told me on seeing it it was most likly one,
hence I've been calling it as such, probley though should be clear I
do not actually know.

Coloration can be a tricky thing to go by with gars, as Locational variance
is extreme, example below is a Tropical from Belize.

(I can not remember who sent me this pic, If you happan to see this
Please Email me, I'll immeadiaty credit you)


----------



## con man (Mar 7, 2004)

a school of 6 needlenose gars... who accompany my indo dats in a brackish tank setup with twisted branches cuz i like the amazon style stuff


----------



## lemmywinks (Jan 25, 2004)

con man said:


> a school of 6 needlenose gars... who accompany my indo dats in a brackish tank setup with twisted branches cuz i like the amazon style stuff


 I dont think needle nose gars are true gars









right?


----------



## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

lemmywinks said:


> con man said:
> 
> 
> > a school of 6 needlenose gars... who accompany my indo dats in a brackish tank setup with twisted branches cuz i like the amazon style stuff
> ...


correct, i think they are characins


----------



## con man (Mar 7, 2004)

there still aweesome....lol


----------



## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

gars are bad ass, but unfortunately i doubt i'd be able to house one for long. that is, if i could even get a hold of one. the only remotely similar fish we see around here are needle nose gars, which aren't even true gars anyway.

i've wanted a gar since i saw aliane's from pfish.


----------



## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

god i find that kid annoying

you think you want one now, though, you just wait till you find one at your lfs. I almost lost sanity, I thought for a time that surely gar and mbuna cichlids would make great tankmates 

I pulled myself away, got out of there... it was REALLY hard... but i managed to do it, somehow...


----------



## Chaisheezay (Apr 25, 2004)

I've only kept a few...Some "crocodile gars" and some Florida gars...Gars are sweet fish..I love them...Nice to see you here Solomon..Possible switch to P's?









Chai


----------



## losts0ul916 (Nov 19, 2003)

I have a Silver/Blunt-Nose Gar (2 LFS had two names for them, can't really tell). My very first one I might add.


----------



## DiXoN (Jan 31, 2003)

i have a florida gar atm.
i saw some longnose,aligator and florida gars the other day for sale.
dixon


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

piranha45 said:


> god i find that kid annoying












chai, thanks for the welcome...although P's are unfortunately not in my near future







. i thought i would sign up to this forum just to convert more people to gar-fanatics!!!

good to see some gar-keepers here as well!--
--solomon


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

Polypterus said:


> I have long suspected it to be a Hybrid just not a Hybrid of a Flordia
> and Alligator, but instead a Shortnose X alligator,
> (PM explains a bit more adding this for the rest here)
> 
> ...


 hey polypterus;

thanks for posting that pic of the trop gar; definitely variability in coloration with that species and many gars. 
i would, however, say that your fish is definitely a crocodile gar and not a tropical. having seen several individuals of this hybrid, i can confidently say yours is the same. i will try and find some juvenile pics as well and you can see how they match up to the earlier pics you had posted. 
the tropical gars i have seen have ranged in coloration from the areas they have been collected from; the ones from Mexico usually seem lighter in coloration than the ones from their more southern range into central america. the ones in Japan that have been exported there and are in captivity seem to be somewhere in between. 
hopefully we will be able to find out more when this shipment from mexico arrives!

thanks for all your gar info everyone; keep posting!--
--solomon


----------



## Polypterus (May 4, 2003)

E_americanus said:


> Polypterus said:
> 
> 
> > I have long suspected it to be a Hybrid just not a Hybrid of a Flordia
> ...


 I have just recieved some info about the Hybrid form,
Mostly just propagation info,

Yes I now am positive this is one of my fish,

I'd love to see some additional pics as well as any information on them,
Perticularly growth rate, adult Coloration, (If adults exist yet)
Meritistic data, (mesurements etc.) and additional Behavioral information.

there needs to be a key available to ID this Fish and other experiments /
Natural hybrids. Kind of a pet project of mine suddenly

Anyone with a known Hybrid fish please contact me or send me a clear pic
of the fish. All information collected will be appropriatly credited


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

good to hear you were able to confirm







i have put together a draft key which is available on other boards at the moment, it ID's all the gar species i have owned, so it only excludes the true shortnose gar and the tropical gar. i only excluded the shortnose because the one i currently have does not exhibit adult characters and is therefore not of much use since the Lepisosteus genus looks almost exactly the same until the young get some girth on them and grow past the 10" mark or so. i will post some pics of my crocodile gar soon as well. mine is currently 16.5" and i got it last October at 3".

from what i have studied, these fishes exhibit growth rates more similar to the alligator gar, but a pattern that is a definite combination of the two species. Lepisosteus genus gars generally have rounded spots in their fins and on the body. Atractosteus gars, when they do have spots or patterning, have it in the form of striations in the fins. the crocodile gar has more rounded spots.
the eye, hard to describe right now, is also similar to the Atract genus than the Lepisosteus genus.
the crocodile gar also has a more prominent second row of teeth than any of the Lepisosteus genus (its a common error that that genus of gars doesnt have a second row...they all do, its just quite small) but the row is smaller than the Atractosteus genus. i have observed several specimens by opening their mouths manually to inspect/ID them.
the crocodile gar is also more aggressive, much like the Atract genus as opposed to the Lepisosteus genus.
pics coming soon...--
--solomon


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

Crocodile Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus x spatula)

juvenile ~5"









~10"









~14" head shot









another individual, sold as an alligator gar (deifnitely not) ~10"









hopefully these help, as well as show some of the variability in this hybrid. i'll post some others if i find any that are very different--
--solomon


----------



## E_americanus (Jun 25, 2004)

about the above pics, if you look at the links, they were originally named 'florida gars' since originally i had mis-ID'd them (way back when







) as Florida gars.

here is my draft 'gar-key' which covers most of the species of gars available in the trade right now--
--solomon


----------



## air*force*one (Mar 5, 2004)

i had hujeta


----------

