Needlenose Gar feeding help.

N

nato2k

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Dec 16, 2007
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After a couple of bouts of disease in my tank and losing several fish I decided to stop using live feeders. I was doing the whole quarentine for a week bit but it didnt seem to help. Anyway All of my fish but the gar have adapted to eating frozen/pellet/flake food but him.

Ive been putting in frozen silversides and krill, along with cichlid flakes, pellets and crisps and he hasnt eaten in over a week now. you can really see that hes gotten skinny and hes even tried to go after a couple of my 2 inch electric yellows in desperation. Ive seen silversides float right by him and he just wont eat them. is there anything else I can do? I dont want to lose him hes one of the first fish I ever owned.
 
What size is the tank? What size is the gar right now? Water parameters? Your gar is going to need feeder fish. It's their natural diet and anything that doesn't swim, the gar will simply refuse to eat hence it did not accept your frozen silversides. Its options are either it tries to eat all your fish or starve itself to death. What were your feeders last time you used them? Guppies? Goldfish?

Get a bag of feeder fish and feed the gar immediately. Get another bag and start a tank where you can breed and raise feeders for the gar's convenience. Start with guppies as they are easy to breed.
 
nato2k:

I really do not have enough knowledge to "for sure" ditto Lupin but I believe that his statements are correct although maybe underestimated.

These gar are not native to the San Angelo area but have been imported somehow from the Pecos River and the Rio Grand River where they are indigenous.

When "I was a kid" I caught several of these with a twined stainless steel leader and a hook baited with shad.
(Please note that they would "snap the hook off" but the twined stainless steel leader would "get caught in there teeth" [ie. I would recommend that you not get fingers close to them]).

The largest which I can remember catching was approximately 4 feet (1.3M) in length
BUT
my Daddy inadvertently "hooked one" in the back when fishing on the Pecos River for mainly Blue Cats.
The fish which he "finally landed" was well over 7 feet (2.3M) in length and took two men to hoist him.

TR
 
there are a few species of Gars.
you may find the 'needlenosed gar' (asian) as an aquarium fish as they are a smaller species of Gar. this species is still capable of getting over 1'
all of the Gars I know of are predators and most will require a variety of live foods(shrimp, other crusatceans and fish)
they should be housed in large tanks the smallest gar should be housed in no less than 70 gallons they are streamilned fish and can generate fast speeds so a tighlyclosing lid is desirable.

there is a specis known as 'alligator' gars these are huge fish capable of lengths well over 6'
 
This is not a true gar. It is also referred to as a Needlefish. It is 9 inches and the tank is 135 gallons. The water is fine lots of oxygen, bio filtration is totally established. I was feeding him rosie reds, he ate probably 5-10 a week. The problem is I also have about 6 other fish that would eat the Minnows. He didnt harm my electric yellows so im not worried about him hurting the other fish in the tank but from what I understand people have got them to eat silversides. I suppose ill buy some feeders though.
 
I saw a nice special on the History Channel that had alligator gars. The host with a guide was on a Texas river and caughta 72" long, 150ish pound fish. Here is a neat old photo of one from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Alligator_gar.jpg

Size is up to 10' according to old historical records - here's another neat page with pictures:

http://www.texasfishingguides.org/kirkland/page_garfish_alligator.htm

I find it fascinating that these fish are about equivalent in size with the bull shark.

Eric
 
Jawhawk:

Off topic but would it not be nice if VT got flushed down the "you know what'!

TR

BTW: my blood runs burnt orange and white.
 
jones57742 - Let's hope the Jayhawks can flush VT right back where they belong... :-)

Texas sure stuffed ASU. The KU-Texas basketball game ought to be good this year - I think, despite losing the best freshman player I've ever seen, that the horns look better this year.

Eric
 
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