Product Description
Our Plastic Longnose Gar This hard plastic, colorful longnose gar toy is well-made and realistic in its shape, detailed scales, and coloration. At 3 3/4 inches long, it could be useful for a pond, river, or lake diorama. Our plastic longnose gar may be useful for a school project or as a party favor or novelty item. Check out our other gar and fish toys and gifts. We have beautiful freshwater fish figurines.The realistic 3 3/4-inch longnose gar is a colorful example. Great for dioramas, collections and displays.
The longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus), also known as the Needlenose gar or Billy gar, is a ray-finned fish of the gar family that has been around for 100Â million years. It has a slender body that is grayish to olive in color and fades to white on its underside. It has an armor of scales covering its whole body. The one dorsal fin is located near the end of the back. This fin, along with the others, is marbled with dark-colored spots. The gar has a long, narrow snout and a mouth lined with unbelievably sharp teeth. In addition to using their gills, the gar can take in oxygen by swimming to the surface and gulping air into their highly vascularized swim bladder. Gars can survive in water with very little oxygen and even out of water completely for many hours, as long as their bodies stay moist. Females become sexually mature at 6 years and males between 3-4 years. Spawning takes place during the spring and summer, when the water reaches at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit. A female will lay its eggs on gravel areas and weedy shallows and, as they are released, the male fertilizes them. A single fish can lay about 30,000 eggs a year. The eggs have a coating to help them stick to the gravel or vegetation. This coating is toxic to terrestrial vertebrates such as mammals and birds. The eggs hatch in 7 to 9 days and the young gar stay in vegetation and eat zooplankton and insects. After they reach about one inch in length, they switch over to an all fish diet.