Alligator pike
| Alligator pike | ||||||||||||
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Alligator pike ( Atractosteus spatula ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Atractosteus spatula | ||||||||||||
| ( Lacépède , 1803) |
The alligator gar ( Atractosteus spatula ) having a maximum length of 3.05 meters and a maximum weight of 137 kg, the largest gar (Lepisosteidae) and one of the largest freshwater fish in North America. In Rio Grande 1951 alligator gar was caught allegedly 126 kg (279 lb ) weighed.
Appearance
Alligator pike are dark, olive-green in color and have no markings. The scales are diamond-shaped and interlocked. The Indians of North America used them to make arrowheads, spearheads and jewelry.
As a member of the genus Atractosteus, alligator pike have a double row of large teeth in the upper jaw. They owe their German and English names to them.
distribution
The alligator pike lives in the basin of the Mississippi River from southwest Ohio and southern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico , in Texas and in eastern Mexico to Veracruz and in western Florida . The fish also go into brackish water and - rarely - into the sea.
nutrition
The alligator pike is a shock predator that passively waits for prey to swim by. It mainly feeds on fish, but water fowl and small alligators have also been found in the stomachs of caught alligator pike.
Web links
- Alligator pike on Fishbase.org (English)
- Alligator Gar, report from the Florida Museum of Natural History
- Alligator Gar, NatureServe Explorer
- Studies on the Physiology of Atractosteus Spatula Larval Development (PDF file; 875 kB)