Needle nose gar - any experience?

V

vfrex

AC Members
Feb 26, 2002
178
0
16
New Jersey
Has anybody out there owned a needle nose gar? I'm going to be getting one for my 125 (most likely) but I wanna know a bit about them.

Do they ever move?
Do they ever eat stuff thats not on the surface (besides feeders)?
Are they jumpers?


most important question...
Do they tend to bite during waterchanges?
 
My only experiences are from a Fish Store environment. We had one for several weeks.

It never ate anything but feeders when it was with us.

It very rarely left the top.

It was maybe 8 inches long, and never tried to bite, seemed a bit afraid, and it did try to jump, but it wasn't very good at it.

It did not compete well for food. It was housed with juvie cichlids, I believe Jack Dempseys and a Blood Parrot.

--Mia
 
In our store it was kept with gold rams...that was a BRILLIANT plan by our fish guy. This one just doesn't seem skittish at all. Most fish when I take the lid off the tank back away. This thing doesn't budge.
 
Our gar always seemed skittish. Of course a lot of the time people only came to the tank to get something out of it, so I'm not too surprised, and he was never interested in the flake everyone else got. Nor teh brine shrimp treat that occassionally appeared.

Well as to brilliant combos our tanks right now have 4-5 inch pike cichlids, in with 2 inch baby oscars. Everythime we feed the tank the pike cichlids try to eat teh oscars.

--Mia
 
Hey. I've had a needlenose for a few months now, check my website to check it out.

They eat feeders, but mine will also eat Hikari's Cichlid Pellets, (Medium and Baby,) They say thats rare though.

My alligator gar once jumped, killed him. If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.
 
I've had my needlenose for about a year and three months now, and he will only take feeders. He seems to like current; he usually hangs out underneath the filter. He grew a lot when I first got him, but he's not much bigger than 6 or 7 inches. He absolutely won't touch fish on the bottom. He's lived with 2 aeneus cories ever since I've had him, and he's never so much as looked at them. However, that might be because my cories are too big for his mouth and he knows it. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend housing them with cories; I'm aware that they're not the most likely (or the most intelligent choice) of tankmates. The other fish he lives with are various botias, a Leporinus fasciatus, a sailfin plec, and two big blue gouramis. My needlenose has always been very timid with the other fish, and he rarely swims around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom