The shortnose gar is the smallest of Louisiana gar species and is the one that recreational fishermen are least likely to encounter. Ninty-eight percent of the diet of longnose gar is fish. There they feed heavily on menhaden, croaker and spot. Like alligator gar, longnose gar range into brackish coastal waters. Studies indicate that in freshwater they feed most heavily on shad, topminnows, shiners, bullhead catfish and small bream. The world-record alligator gar weighed an impressive 279 pounds.Īlthough their diet focuses on fish, most of the species eaten are not important game or commercial fish. The current longnose gar world record stands at an even 50 pounds, although larger ones have certainly been caught by commercial net fishermen.
It often reaches more than 5 feet in length, but because much of that is snout and the fact that the fish is more streamlined than other gars, it weighs less per foot than does its other large relative, the alligator gar. Of the three species under discussion here, the longnose gar grows the largest and is the most piscivorous (fish-eating). Incidentally, osseus means “of bone” in Latin, platostomus means “broad-mouthed” in Greek, and oculatus means “eyed,” a Latin reference to the round, dark, eye-like spots on tops of their heads. The word lepisosteus is Greek and means “scale-bone,” which is what they have: scales of bone. Scientific names for garfishes are very descriptive. Its body color and snout shape are indeed different than the shortnose gar’s, but identification is so simple using the snout’s spots or lack of them that using other features is unnecessary. The spotted gar, true to its name, has dark spots on top of its snout.
The other two species - the shortnose gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) and the spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) - are easier for fishermen to confuse with each other unless they know what to look for, which is snout color rather than snout shape. It is not as common in any one place as the other species, but like the alligator gar it is widely distributed. Snout shape as well as coloration are also the key to identifying the other three garfish species.Ĭertainly the easiest to identify is the longnose gar, Lepisosteus osseus, often called the “needle-nose gar” by fishermen. It can be separated from the other three species by its broad, alligator-like (hence its name) snout. Most well-known to fishermen, simply because of its impressive size and ferocious appearance is the alligator gar, a species that can produce fish weighing more than 200 pounds and one found in both fresh and brackish waters. But we have more than just numbers: Louisiana is home to four of the five United States gar species.
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