View Full Version : my florida gar wont eat
rattlermike
08-25-2005, 10:48 PM
i have a 9 inch florida gar and for the life of me i cant get the thing to eat. He is housed with 2 lg arrowana and they are quite the brutes . also in there aquarium is a motoro stingray a bricher ell,a shovel nose cat and a few little parrots . dose any one have a clue to what he will eat i have tryed every thing at my dispose shrimp,silversides,krill,live worms,and feeder fish.
please help
guppy
08-26-2005, 12:32 AM
Try live crickets dropped o to the surface near him. A couple questions though, have you had him long, how much bigger are the aros, did he just stop eating or has he not yet started to eat for you, and last does he have any cover like elodea or pond lilies?
gars are the easiest fish to wean off live food.
here's the trick, drop in more food in the tank than usual so the gar would have a chance to get it.
it'll start eating after a few days of starving, don't worry.
Gars aren't always easy to wean off of live food... :p But I agree with Ming, drop in more food... Freeze-dried krill has always worked as a great first prepared gar food for me. :)
fishy_dude
08-26-2005, 10:23 AM
let it starve for a while.. it'll start eating soon enough.. hopefully*crossed fingers* =p
rattlermike
08-26-2005, 12:17 PM
the arros are about 16 and 18 inches i have tryed to over feed the tank but he wont take . i have had him about two weeks and he has ate nothing at all , i wil just wait and see... thanks
By the way, I just saw where you're from... I just moved from Logan utah this last week! I'm assuming that you bought him online?
wism_chan
08-28-2005, 9:24 AM
As you feed other fishes....let your gar starve itself first....
when hungry sure it will compete for food with the other fishes....
try to put more live food when you feed the fishes...so that the gar has enough time to grab the food also.....
rattlermike
08-28-2005, 6:04 PM
still no luck, i got him threw a wholesaler in flordia.. the fish are in one of my large show tanks at a retail store i manage in sandy called the aquarium
you can always hand feed him. that's what I do.
Yeah, another problem can be if your gar has the usual top-dwelling behavior and the food sinks too fast for them to notice it. I would come up with some way of keep the food on the surface, maybe with one of the vegetable clips... but if you do hand feed them, stop once it's able to get the food, as 1. gars can damage their snouts if they chomp down on something hard when small (such as a human hand, thanks to Polypterus for this info), and 2. getting bit even by a smaller gar can really hurt, believe me!