{"id":4420,"date":"2025-10-04T22:39:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T22:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/?p=4420"},"modified":"2025-10-04T22:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T22:39:21","slug":"gar-and-garfish-in-barbados-4oct2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/2025\/10\/04\/gar-and-garfish-in-barbados-4oct2025\/","title":{"rendered":"“Gar” and “Garfish” in Barbados 4Oct2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

My curiosity about these fish began with a question about “houndfish”<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Observed Mar 5, 2025 near Reef Crest, in Barbados MPA<\/strong>. View iNaturalist record<\/strong>.<\/a> iNaturalist member sue1001 disagreed with my ID of it as a redfin needlefish (Strongylura notata<\/em>), commenting “[it’s a]” Houndfish Tylosurus crocodilus<\/em> – [note] Shorter, thicker beak. No red\/yellow fins. Nice find!”
Now I’m not so sure, only that it is a needlefish – or what Bajans call “gar” or “garfish”.
Click on images for larger versions<\/em><\/p><\/div>My interest in the category of fish caught in Barbados that are commonly called “gar fish” or “garfish” arose from a fish I had photographed and posted on iNaturalist, suggesting it was a redfin needlefish; a more knowledgeable iNat. member identified it as a houndfish (see pic at right).\u00a0I have often seen groups of this fish – or a very similar species –\u00a0 near the reef crest of fringing reefs in the Barbados MPA, but could not get close enough to them to get a really good image.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0was curious as to how common houndfish might be in Barbados.\u00a0 I could find no references to “Houndfish, Barbados” on social media, so\u00a0 I sent this message to spearfishingbarbados.com on Aug 31, 2025… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My curiosity about these fish began with a question about “houndfish” My interest in the category of fish caught in Barbados that are commonly called “gar fish” or “garfish” arose from a fish I had photographed and posted on iNaturalist, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4420"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4423,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4420\/revisions\/4423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versicolor.ca\/barbados\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}