Alligator Gars

[Taboojen]

I saw two baby alligator gars at the LFS (Thats what they called them.) They are about 12-14" each. Beautiful fish. Anyone currently keeping any? How big do these guys get?

[toxicfish]

BIG

[messiner]

frickin huge like 6-7 feet long and hundreds of lbs. google pics of them and see what i mean

[beblondie]

record length is 10feet and 300 pounds.These are really not aquarium fish-Anne

[stotty]

In the wild over 6 ft and up to 300lb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :screwy: had one got to 2 ft eating like a mad thing fed it on dead bates i used for pike fishing

[rk59]

Don´t be afraid, in the aquarium they won´t become larger than 3 feet

[rweedon]

Don´t be afraid, in the aquarium they won´t become larger than 3 feet

don't listen to this dood he doesn't know what he is talking about definately not a good fish to keep in an aquarium...

[rk59]

anyway, no reason to be afraid of it. did you ever saw these gars larger than this size in an aquarium ?

[DeLgAdO]

anyway, no reason to be afraid of it. did you ever saw these gars larger than this size in an aquarium ?

no because a responsible fish keeper would not let them get that big in the average aquarium.

i have a feeling you want to make trouble

[stotty]

I know I had one had to cut it down to feeding it once a week it was eating 6inch fish when it was 1 ft long would eat every day as I said it went into a 12 ft tank and was getting up to the 2 1/2 ft mark when it went of to its new owner and it was showing no signs of stopping I love these fish and would dearly love to own another one but you must thing about 2 things is my tank big enough? and who will have it when its to big? there is a lot of responsibility in owning these huge fish if money was not a problem I would have huge fish like alligator gar and Arapaima I have a 6 ft tank at the moment with plans to change it over to a 8ft in the summer and I still don't think this is big enough for this fish just look at that picture I know it was caught in the wiled and the tank will stunt its growth to a small amount but its getting less exercise and more food than it would in the wild :cry:

[rk59]

not at all. I agree with you that there must be a very, very large tank to keep alligator gars, but I thought, this is clear for all users of the monsterfish forum. I personnally never kept alligator gars since my tank isn´t big enough. Three friend of mine grow their alligators from baby gar to adult size and they had no problems with them.

I´m interested in southamerican carfish and gars. I´m happy to find this board today to share my experience.

Regards

Reiner

[stotty]

The rod and reel world record alligator gar weighed 290 lb, and the trot line, or unrestricted division record weighed 302 lb. Both were caught in the Rio Grande River back in the 1950s, and measured a little over 7-1/2 ft in length. thats a big fish :clap

[Taboojen]

Yeah... I just googled them after I made the post. haha. My gosh - 300lbs Hmmm. That thing can probably swallow some domestic house pets, and then some. eek. I thought it was funny though - cuz i read an article that stated that there are public aquariums who would like to display Alligator Gars but dont have any - since they couldn't find ones small enough. haha.

The ones I saw at the LFS were pretty though. First Gars i've seen in the LFS. (Yes- i live a sheltered life) :grinyes: The two rows of teeth are definately interesting. They have two of them in a 180 gal right now i think. The owner told me he was gonna move them to the indoor pond that they had. I knew they were monster fish, but didn't think they get that big.

hehe. :) so what is the smallest Gar out there? As this one supposively is one of the largest? Just curious. hehe Thanks for the info! Definately a fasinating fish.

[stotty]

Out of the 7 species of gars, 4 species are found in Florida including the
alligator gar Ranges from 0.76-4 m (2.5-13 ft.); depends on species. The alligator gar is one of the largest of all freshwater fishes, Spotted, Florida and short-nosed gars are smaller than the other ... Gars and can be kept with most fishes that are too big to be eaten grow to about 2ft

[uhjkool]

heres a nice little pic :headbang2

[Polypterus]

Nevermind :) edited

[arapaimag]

I saw two baby alligator gars at the LFS (Thats what they called them.) They are about 12-14" each. Beautiful fish. Anyone currently keeping any? How big do these guys get?

10 feet or more. I've seen them that size. Mine isn't quite 30 inches yet. Great fish

[benzjamin13]

Some Monster Fish should never be house IMO. Mekong Catfish, Alligator Gars, Arapaimi, etc. They're BIG. And as nice as they are to have, unless you have the funds to give it a...I don't know...5000 gallon aquarium/pond and appease it's appetite, I would say don't do it.

[Sunpoe]

heres a nice little pic :headbang2
It is so cool that a fish that amazining hasen't been forced into extinction

[Zoodiver]

10 feet or more. I've seen them that size. Mine isn't quite 30 inches yet. Great fish

Spoken by the one guy on this board with a tank large enough to keep one :headbang2

[Pangong_ilong]

Some Monster Fish should never be house IMO. Mekong Catfish, Alligator Gars, Arapaimi, etc. They're BIG. And as nice as they are to have, unless you have the funds to give it a...I don't know...5000 gallon aquarium/pond and appease it's appetite, I would say don't do it.
Arapaimag can house all of them in 1 tank. 1 Megatank.

[big E]

Now thats MONSTER!!!!!!!!

[dapike1979]

Now thats MONSTER!!!!!!!!

I would not want that fish to swim with me!!

[unknownuza13]

Some Monster Fish should never be house IMO. Mekong Catfish, Alligator Gars, Arapaimi, etc. They're BIG. And as nice as they are to have, unless you have the funds to give it a...I don't know...5000 gallon aquarium/pond and appease it's appetite, I would say don't do it.


Dude now three straight posts I have read stating you would like to get a fish but it gets to big for your taste and now your saying some monsterfish should not be housed in home aquarium and you name arapaima mekong etc... Those might be the top level of fish to not keep but if RTC and Shovelnose are not included in that list which I think they should be they have to be in the next tier down of fish that require huge tanks. I'm not talking about 300 gallon huge. I saw you said ATF's get to big and Alligator gar, how big do you think your RTC shovelnose is going to get? It will be huuuuuuge man.

[Zoodiver]

I agree. I'm not saying they can't be kept. I think along the line of who really has a set up that can pull it off? An adult Arapaima needs 30K or more. I'd toss the alligator gar in the size group as well. Nothing shy of 15K-20K for an adult.

Some of the large bodied cats need more than most would assume as well. Red tails and tiger shovel nose being two of them. I'd say 1,000 gallons should be minimum for those types.

We need to stop asking "can I?" and start asking "should I?" instead.

[jck664]

sounds like you need to build a man made lake in the back yard

[DeLgAdO]

i want one some day

ill build a bigass swimming pool and keep only a gator gar

oh and lets not forgot the beware of attack fish sign :)

[dapike1979]

Now that's a monster Fish!! :headbang2

[clowntrigger99]

i have a gar that is 18" long and he will not eat i have tried worms gold fish dried shrimp and pellets. what else could i feed him.

[arapaimag]

i have a gar that is 18" long and he will not eat i have tried worms gold fish dried shrimp and pellets. what else could i feed him.

Try thawed frozen lake smelt and chunks of mouth sized fresh water whitefish/trout/salmon. My gar loves these.

[bnr34]

Hi guys. I've got 2 (4' Florida gars), 1 8' spotted gar and 1 Alli gar. They're all in sererate tanks and the alli gar is in a 6ft x 4ft x 3ft fibre glass tank. will take photos soon. Just discovered this site.

[Colby]

Hell yea