Shortnose gar (Lepisosteus platostomus) is a freshwater species recorded in the United States.
Scientific name: Lepisosteus platostomus · Water: Freshwater
Size: up to 88 cm
The shortnose gar is a demersal lepisosteid that inhabits quiet pools and backwaters of creeks and small to large rivers, as well as swamps, lakes and the overflow areas of large streams, often near vegetation and submerged logs. It is a facultative air-breather and feeds on other fishes and insects, spawning over vegetation or other submerged objects. Maximum length is about 88 cm total length, commonly about 63 cm, and it can live 20 years. It is a commercial species, a gamefish and is kept in public aquariums. Fishing vulnerability is high at 57 of 100 and resilience low. IUCN lists it as least concern.
It is native to the United States, where its range takes in the Mississippi and Missouri River basins — from Montana in the west to the Ohio River in the east — and runs south to the Gulf Coast. It inhabits calm water in large rivers and their backwaters, as well as oxbow lakes and large pools. The fish is long and slender, brown or olive green above and whitish below, and is armoured by rows of interlocking, rhomboidal ganoid scales. It is an ambush predator of the lie-in-wait kind: the body is elongated and torpedo-like with an elongated head holding a single row of sharp, conical teeth, and the dorsal fin sits far back, nearly directly above the anal fin and very close to the large caudal fin. The colour varies from brown or olive green on the dorsal surface through yellow on the sides to white on the belly. It can be told from the other gars by what it lacks — the upper jaw of the alligator gar, the long snout of the longnose gar and the markings of the spotted gar. Spawning takes place in spring, when females, often accompanied by several males, attach their eggs to clumps of submerged vegetation; the eggs hatch after about a week, and once the young have absorbed the yolk sac they feed on insect larvae and small crustaceans, maturing at about three years of age.
Back to home · United States · Species library