Does Anyone Know What This Is?

[donporter]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, although I've had an aquarium or 3 over the last 35 years.
I have been working in the middle east for some time now, and recently set up a tank.
I've decided to fill it with some of the species not normally found in the UK. My most recent additions are a pair of the strange looking specimen above the cichlid.
The shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders when I asked him what it/they are called, but he had tanks full of them in different sizes and colours. These were not the biggest ones.

If anyone knows the answer, I would be most grateful. Oh, and what I should feed them with would help aswell.

They are about 10 inches long and have a mouth full of small, but very sharp looking teeth.
My other prize fish, a large male Green Terror, took such a dislike to them that I've had to take him out of the tank.

Many thanks, Don

 

[Fella]

Spotted pike characin, Boulengerella maculata I'd say.

 

[donporter]

Thanks very much Fella. That was quick.

Regards, Don

 

[clareandkarl]

Definately not that in my opinion, it has to be either a spotted gar, florida gar or an alligator gar. Highly dangerous to other fish given its big teeth you need to be careful of its tank mates. feed it whitebait, prawn, cockle, mussel and you may find it is not that easy to get it eating at first if there are a lot of other fish swimming around.
You will see some videos of gars from cane where he hand feeds his (very carefully) before his other fish.
The minimum this fish will get would be 18" in my opinion.
Clare

 

[donporter]

Definately not that in my opinion, it has to be either a spotted gar, florida gar or an alligator gar. Highly dangerous to other fish given its big teeth you need to be careful of its tank mates. feed it whitebait, prawn, cockle, mussel and you may find it is not that easy to get it eating at first if there are a lot of other fish swimming around.
You will see some videos of gars from cane where he hand feeds his (very carefully) before his other fish.
The minimum this fish will get would be 18" in my opinion.
Clare

Thank you very much Clare, and now I'm scared!!
They've only been in the tank for 2 days, haven't started eating yet, and they're so nervous, they jump (almost out of the tank) when I lift the lid to feed the fish.
Think I've made a mistake there.

Don

 

[CFC]

I'd go with aligator gar, the snout appears to be too short for a florida gar, though it could be one of the many hybrids going about which are often sold under the trade name of crocodile gar.

Definately not the Boulengerella species though as it lacks the tell tale adipose fin found on Characin species and has ganoid scales which are only found on bichirs and true gars.

 

[Straydum]

i second it being an alligator gar. it's gonna be a monster when it grows up.

 

[donporter]

i second it being an alligator gar. it's gonna be a monster when it grows up.

How big do they get? I've gone and bought 2 of them

 

[Straydum]

maybe this would help

 

[Amerce]

http/myfwc.com/Fishing/Fishes/gar.html#florida

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_gar

 

[donporter]

maybe this would help

Does anyone want to buy some nice fish

 

[clareandkarl]

Take a look at this link

http/www.primitivefish.com/Gars.htm

It might help with identification although young gars are difficult to ID, I would tend to agree though that it might of been a mistake unless you have a large tank and some experience with predatory fish.
A shot from above will help to see the snout size, as CFC says, there are some strange cross breeds around these days making things harder to identify, but good luck.

 

[mark7616]

Thats is an aligator gar mate and a very slim one if it is 10". This is my 8" spotted gar. As you can see the snout is longer and its has less markings you can also tell a spotted / florida gar if you took a pic lookng down on the nose but there is no need as I will agree with cfc that that is a gator gar or something crossed with one either way you need to get rid of them.

 

[donporter]

Take a look at this link

http/www.primitivefish.com/Gars.htm

It might help with identification although young gars are difficult to ID, I would tend to agree though that it might of been a mistake unless you have a large tank and some experience with predatory fish.
A shot from above will help to see the snout size, as CFC says, there are some strange cross breeds around these days making things harder to identify, but good luck.

Thanks again,

I looked at the link and out of all the Gars, the Crocodile Gar Type 1 seems to be the closest match (virtually identical), and they can get to 6' long.
My tank is around 4', with approx. 45 US gallons of water. I made it myself, so I hope those seals hold!!

Don

 

[mark7616]

also when you looking at larger fish mate although your tank is 4' long you need to take into account how wide it is so the fish can turn around.