Re: NANFA-L-- Unknown fingerling gar

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Tue, 23 May 2006 09:19:17 -0500

Beautiful photos Dan, congratulations! My vote is its a longnose.
The snout is definitely >2x rest of head. However, it definitely has
spots on top of the head and snout, which fits spotted gar ADULTS -- I
just don't remember-in-this life history stage for longnose.

BTW, your gar is actually a larva. Notice the detached portion on the
dorsal of the caudal fin. This is the notochordal appendage. With
development, it becomes fused to the caudal fin, and thus is a part of
the caudal fin structure. A juvenile animal that has a structure not
present in the adult animal (notochordal appendage in this case) is a
larva.

Have you observed the head down posture of the gar in the water? At
this life history stage, they frequently swim with the head pointed
down, caudal fin up, and with superficial observation they appear like
a twig that floats with attached leaves up. When using this posture,
the notochordal appendage may twirl like a propellor to provide
locomotion.

Neat critters! Watch for that behavior.

Dave

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Johnson <danjohns-in-io.com>
Date: Monday, May 22, 2006 9:57 pm
Subject: NANFA-L-- Unknown fingerling gar
> I've put a few more photos of the fingerling gar on my web page:
> http://www.io.com/~danjohns/fish/gar.html . I've dug through my
books
> and can't find any really good keys for fingerlings. Thanks
>
> --Dan
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