View Full Version : needle-nose gar, anyone got one?
rumblesushi
08-02-2005, 9:11 AM
From my understanding, these are not even gars. It's an Asian fish that looks like a gar with a long skinny toothy mouth, and grows to about a foot.
They had some when I went to get my wolf fish, about the same length, and I liked it, but decided against it because it was so skinny it looked like it would be bitten in half if I put it in with my hoplias.
Has anyone kept one? What are they like?
i had two of them very interesting fish. They don't grow very large but are tough fish. i'd watch what you put them with. they will eat any fish smaller then them.
rumblesushi
08-02-2005, 11:08 AM
thanks for the info, but somehow I doubt they'd eat my wolf fish even if they were bigger :D
Do you know the scientific name for them? And did you feed them live or frozen/dried?
not sure of the proper name. i fed mine live feeders. thats all mine would eat for me. i'm sure you could get one to eat other things. i had one just about a foot and he would swallow about a 2 1/2 inch goldfish with no problem.
rumblesushi
08-02-2005, 11:44 AM
Did they seem like tough fish that could defend themselves? What else were they in with?
I'm just wondering if one could survive with my wolf if he was at least the same size.
My wolf is 6.5 inches and the other day he swallowed a catfish that must have been almost 4 inches long :D
Tainted Glory
08-02-2005, 11:45 AM
THe two at work eat anything...feeder rosies, the red eyed tetras in with them, krill, bloodworms, you name it. Pretty awesome fish.
My needle nose was in a 75 gallon with a pacu, 2 large tinfoil barbs, he ate the smaller ones. a Tiger shovelnose and an angelica. The tank worked well until for some reason everything got sick and died,except for my tsn. but the needle nose was by far my favorite. all the other fish were the same size or larger. The needle nose was the king of the tank. :grinno:
YOULOOKLIKEAFISH
08-02-2005, 12:16 PM
Xenentodon cancila
evilfish
08-03-2005, 12:22 PM
its not a gar. cheers YOULOOKLIKEAFISH coz thats its latin name. obviously it aint a gar.
rumblesushi
08-03-2005, 12:47 PM
evil - read my first post, I already said I know it's not a gar.
DRaGoNoVA
08-03-2005, 12:55 PM
:) got any pics?
heres a pic of mine
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/tara-jordan/IMG_2702.jpg
guppy
08-04-2005, 10:11 PM
If that is what I think it is then it is the victim of marketers adding the name gar to any long thin predatory freshwater fish. It looks like a needlefish which is related to halfbeaks. They are brackish but adaptable, various close relatives are found almost world wide in warm waters and some types get more than 3' long. In some areas they are rather expensive food fish.
STONEDFISH
08-04-2005, 10:49 PM
It was a tough fish, absolutely shredded my silver gar to bits. I accidently killed mine about a year ago.....when I moved. Sucked.
STONEDFISH
AlaskaJammin
08-05-2005, 9:22 AM
I have had a few of these guys and they are kind of sensitive. They are actually supposed to be kept cool, and will always be the first fish to show sighns of stress with water quality. Also very susceptable to bacterial infections. Id go with a silver hujeta any day
rumblesushi
08-05-2005, 3:38 PM
Funny you say that, I bought a hujeta today. Damn cool fish, shiny, active, and snapping at buenas aires tetras 2 minutes after I acclimatised him.
He's more aggressive than my hoplias :D
AlaskaJammin
08-06-2005, 10:09 AM
Yeah the hujeta are awsome. But if you really want to see them at their best you have to keep them in groups of six or more. I have a school of eight and they all school toghether and line up in a defensive pattern whenever threatened by my other fish. Wicked cool stuff. BTW if you want to get away from live food with them, I had a lot of luck with chopped and frozen krill.
thunderbolt289
08-17-2005, 12:26 AM
In my 75, I have 3 Cancila "Gars" and 3 Hujeta "Gars". The Cancila seem to be more active. None are aggressive to one another. The tank is being planted and has 240 watts. I wish I had room for more! A school of eight sounds absolutely awesome! Three should be the minimum number (with enough space, of course) in my opinion.
I've had horrible luck with feeders lately. Half the time the LFS is out, or if they do have feeders, they get sick and die within days.
Can anyone tell me how to get them to eat krill? Any info would be great! Thanks!