Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes(genus, species) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Holostei (gars and bowfins) > Lepisosteiformes (Gars) > Lepisosteidae (Gars)
Etymology: Atractosteus: Greek, atraktos, arrow + Greek, osteon = bone (Ref. 45335).
More on author: Gill.

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; demersal. Tropical

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

Central America: Caribbean and Pacific drainages of southern Mexico and Central America.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: L_m 45.5, range 50 - 60 cm
Max length : 125 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 36722); max. published weight: 2.9 kg (Ref. 40637)

Facultative air-breathing (Ref. 126274); Inhabit backwaters and slow moving sections of rivers and lakes. Often found in the warm stagnant waters of the lowland. Visible on the surface and resemble floating logs. Enter shallow lakes at the beginning of the dry season to spawn and known to reproduce also in June and July when rains are heaviest and rivers flood their banks providing an ideal spawning habitat of flooded vegetation. Large schools form to cast thousands of eggs in a gelatinous mass in the shallow waters. The adults return again to the river leaving the fry amongst the flooded vegetation (Ref. 36880). The eggs are poisonous to eat (Ref. 4537).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Wiley, Ed | Collaborators

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2003. Lepisosteidae (Gars). p. 29. In R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasil. (Ref. 36722)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435: Version 2024-1)

Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 21 March 2018

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Poisonous to eat (Ref. 4537)

Human uses

FAO - Fisheries: landings; Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Trophic ecology
Food items
Diet composition
Food consumption
Food rations
Predators

Ecology
Ecology

Population dynamics
Growth parameters
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance

Life cycle
Reproduction
Maturity
Maturity/Gills rel.
Fecundity
Spawning
Spawning aggregations
Eggs
Egg development
Larvae
Larval dynamics

Distribution
Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
BRUVS - Videos

Anatomy
Gill area
Brain
Otolith

Physiology
Body composition
Nutrients
Oxygen consumption
Swimming type
Swimming speed
Visual pigments
Fish sound
Diseases & Parasites
Toxicity (LC50s)

Genetics
Genetics
Heterozygosity
Heritability

Human related
Aquaculture systems
Aquaculture profiles
Strains
Ciguatera cases
Stamps, coins, misc.

Outreach
Collaborators

Taxonomy
Common names
Synonyms
Morphology
Morphometrics
Pictures

References
References

Tools

Special reports

Check for Aquarium maintenance | Check for Species Fact Sheets | Check for Aquaculture Fact Sheets

Download XML

Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804): PD₅₀ = 0.6406 [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high].

Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00229 (0.00091 - 0.00578), b=3.19 (2.97 - 3.41), in cm total length, based on LWR estimates for this (Sub)family-body shape (Ref. 93245).

Trophic level (Ref. 69278): 4.2 ±0.73 se; based on food items.

Resilience (Ref. 120179): Very Low, minimum population doubling time more than 14 years (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).

Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153): High to very high vulnerability (75 of 100).

Atractosteus tropicus Gill, 1863