Alligator Gar Size

[E_americanus]

so? what is the meantime record for the largest gar size?

valid records for fish sizes are usually well referenced at fishbase.org...use this reference for most species as it is a huge collection of data.

current gator gar wild max = 305 cm, 137kg

just for the sake of the argument.. and note I would never get in a gar debate with most of you guys in this thread but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a 15' alligator gar somewhere.. there are giants and dwarfs of all spiecies, just saying.. I do not in any way mean that would change the avarage size or anything..

for the sake of argument, yes, you are correct...there could be giants and dwarfs out there...BUT that could be the case with just about any organism, so if we let the "anything is possible" argument guide our discussions they would generally turn pointless very quickly. there could possibly be a 10' tall human or a 40' long tiger...but we generally accept those to be unlikely, and go with what data is available and methods for estimating max sizes as well.--
--solomon

 

[ettfettbranamn]

haha.. yes.. sorry for the "could exist argument" I'm just fascinated by these creatures.. I never get my gars to make it.. I have a florida/spotted now.. 8" long and with the "adult" body shape but he is growing pretty slowly.. keep my fingers crossed he will make it!

 

[E_americanus]

haha.. yes.. sorry for the "could exist argument" I'm just fascinated by these creatures.. I never get my gars to make it.. I have a florida/spotted now.. 8" long and with the "adult" body shape but he is growing pretty slowly.. keep my fingers crossed he will make it!

sorry to hear they haven't made it in the past...they are usually pretty hardy. what are the gars tankmates and water conditions/tank size? if you keep the fish (8") alone in a 20g-50g tank at 80-82F and do 50% water changes 1x a week it should grow quite fast for you (and the 20g would need to be quickly upgraded).
hope that brief bit of info may help, but if you have other questions feel free to post. good luck with the new guy!--
--solomon

 

[Spatula]

I believe allot of people make these statements because when you lookup Alligator Gar, wikipedia comes up in the top searches and when you go to that page it has that old pic of that slave with a HUGE Alligator Gar...
Let me see if I can get it... here this one:

 

[King-eL]

I believe allot of people make these statements because when you lookup Alligator Gar, wikipedia comes up in the top searches and when you go to that page it has that old pic of that slave with a HUGE Alligator Gar...
Let me see if I can get it... here this one:

Maybe gator gars were a lot bigger in the past where they don't care much about them and started killing the bigger ones. Now we are probably seeing smaller ones and those that carry the genes with 8-9 feet and not those 10 feet or more. That's why the babies carries the parents genes and would grow about the same or even smaller. Just like in captivity in mass breeding. Fish are being force to breed once mature with hormones, and they are not in full max potential size, and when they reproduce, the babies don't get to full max size.

 

[Spatula]

Fish are being force to breed once mature with hormones, and they are not in full max potential size, and when they reproduce, the babies don't get to full max size.

Very interesting point...

 

[E_americanus]

Maybe gator gars were a lot bigger in the past where they don't care much about them and started killing the bigger ones. Now we are probably seeing smaller ones and those that carry the genes with 8-9 feet and not those 10 feet or more. That's why the babies carries the parents genes and would grow about the same or even smaller. Just like in captivity in mass breeding. Fish are being force to breed once mature with hormones, and they are not in full max potential size, and when they reproduce, the babies don't get to full max size.

that's not necessarily true in terms of genes...environment does play a role, and different populations will develop different growth rates as well. fishing can cause a shift in size of a population, but that's not likely what is happening with gator gars in this case. your statements on genetics do hold relatively true in captivity, but in the wild we are looking at a variety of factors from latitudinal variation, population genetics, and ecotypes.

the big ones have been hunted/killed, yes, but there are still likely some out there. and there's probably a major impact of habitat loss as well.--
--solomon

 

[Zoodiver]

Were is that? I wanna go there!!

Underwater Adventures Aq - Mall of America - Minnesota.
That pic was taken just before moving it to a bigger display. That was in the 145,000 gallon I turned into the Amazon River. It's now housed in largest freshwater display in the US (possibly the world, but that's not proven yet).... 220,000 gallons. There are several species of gar, as well as many other native North American fish, turtles and eels in there. And that gar looks small next to some of the sturgeon we had.

 

[gigas12]

Hi,yes a real monster fish!

 

[rostratusgar]

The purchase of GAR is sometimes a big problem. I also bought GAR. I thought that this is a smaller type of GAR. Now I found that my tank Atractosteus spatula! See my photo gallery. Originally, I wanted something smaller. Even so come to the big GAR.