| Family: |
Lepisosteidae (Gars) |
| Max. size: |
125 cm TL (male/unsexed); max.weight: 2,890.0 g |
| Environment: |
demersal; freshwater |
| Distribution: |
Central America: Caribbean and Pacific drainages of southern Mexico and Central America. |
| Diagnosis: |
|
| Biology: |
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). |
| IUCN Red List Status: |
Least Concern (LC); Date assessed: 21 March 2018 Ref. (130435)
|
| Threat to humans: |
poisonous to eat |
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