Ultimate Monsters

[Jakdarippa]

Heaven was hell and vica versa..

[fishloverblake]

how bigs the tank, and how big r they?

[WeeNe858]

that sucked......

[arkmann]

What's that he ate?

[---XR---]

looks like a shovelnose cat from here

[fishloverblake]

i think a ugly tsn.

[Eupterus]

Was that on purpose or did the gar kill a tankmate?.

[tonymofo]

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, because I want one so I really mean I love it!!!!!!!!:headbang2 :headbang2 :headbang2

Nice fish, now my basement is going to look like a small petstore.

[Jakdarippa]

how bigs the tank, and how big r they?
They'll eat anything put in their tank, so I house them alone in a 800 G. I'd say around 24 cms.

[Jakdarippa]

how bigs the tank, and how big r they?
24 inches

[Jakdarippa]

What's that he ate?
Shovelnose Catfish

[Jakdarippa]

Was that on purpose or did the gar kill a tankmate?.
This was an attempt to add a tankmate but they pounced on him before he hit the gravel.. all three ripped into him at one point, I tried to save him but in the matter of seconds he was full of holes and no longer breathing.. quick death.

[DownUnder]

stunning! awesome display of monstrosity... as 4 ultimate killer... i'd say close but not yet... cheers on uR beast mate... i gotta get me 1 of those...

[demjor19]

nice gator gar!
what is their normal diet...you know...when they arent eating tsn's? lol!

def. the ultimate monsters!

[madmac82]

its a pitty, same with my gator, any thing i put in the tank goes in seconds.

[Onion01]

I like the tsn's look of terror as he is being grabbed. Poor guy. Expensive meal.

[demjor19]

my trop is the same way. he has tried to eat my 12" aro, he has bitten my 18" florida gar more than once, he attacks my plecos...total monster. now that his growth is finally slowing down he is not quite as aggressive.

i have heard the gators do the same. the only difference is by the time the gators growth slows it will already be over 3'. :nilly: wish i had the room for one! gimme a few years! :D

[E_americanus]

definitely impressive fish for sure, great looking specimens too. thanks for sharing the pics, and i look forward to updates.

too bad about the TSN though, the fish was definitely too small to go in with gator gars. hopefully, with the readily available information on gator gars (and other gar species) and tankmates, incidences like these do not happen as much (or in a perfect world, at all) in the future.

once again, gator gars are very aggressive, by far the most for gar species, and even among many predatory fishes in general. they should not be kept with tankmates that are smaller than themselves in the majority of cases--
--solomon

[Bsixxx]

awsome looking gars and wonderful pictures
:)

man these are on my to get list one day when get my own personal lake
LOL

[cichlid savage]

WOW before he hit the gravel :WHOA: . That must have been like a gormet dinner to them. An expensive 1 at that.

[Jakdarippa]

nice gator gar!
what is their normal diet...you know...when they arent eating tsn's? lol!

def. the ultimate monsters!
They are mainly on dry krill as a staple diet; but I also occasionally throw frozen bloodworm cubes at each one to make sure they all get fed... Feeder fish, lizards, crickets, you name it... key word is variety...which makes them curious whenever a new food is introduced, I even fed mine liver pieces from dog food a few times. trick is to drop it in front of them as gars don’t seem to have the best eye sight.. Fasting them for a day or two every now and then also seems to keep their appetite running.

[Jakdarippa]

WOW before he hit the gravel :WHOA: . That must have been like a gormet dinner to them. An expensive 1 at that.
No tankmates thats for sure, just snails to clean up after them..

[zix]

full tank pic

[E_americanus]

as gars don’t seem to have the best eye sight..


gars actually have very good eyesight, it's just that they are instinctively drawn to feed on food that moves. training them past this using the techniques you have mentioned effectively gets them on the more or less 'inanimate' food items.

usually gators require much less training as they are relative garbage disposals as far as gars are concerned. on the species continuum, it's often longnoses that are the toughest to get onto prepped foods, however, with proper technique (again incorporating what you have mentioned), any gar can be trained.

again, impressive specimens you have there :) --
--solomon

[kunaonetanaona]

when was the last time you feed them..??

[demjor19]

trick is to drop it in front of them as gars don’t seem to have the best eye sight.. Fasting them for a day or two every now and then also seems to keep their appetite running.


all of my gar are on a staple of market shrimp and various fish fillets. i also feed fd krill, pellets, and an occasional feeder fish. i usually drop the shrim directly in fron of my gar too. that way i know each of them got fed.

i agree w/ E_Americanus. i think they have very good eye sight. mine can all spot the food from across the tank.

[Jakdarippa]

gars actually have very good eyesight

I agree with americanus, but due to the shape of their head they dont seem to see well upfront and thats why they tilt their head to the side when they strike, the eyes on the side of the head provide 20 degrees of binocular vision to judge distance and attack with accuracy. At night its a different story, with the pupils fully dilated, sharpness of vision is comparable to that of an owl's. Just like cats, gars have a thin layer of special reflecting tissue behind each retina called tapetum lucidumm which acts like a mirror to concentrate all light when its dark (a definite advantage for a night active predator). This also causes fire red eyeshine at night when caught in a flashlight beam..

REFERENCE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7866770&dopt=AbstractPlus

[Jakdarippa]

stunning! awesome display of monstrosity... as 4 ultimate killer... i'd say close but not yet... cheers on uR beast mate... i gotta get me 1 of those...


The only thing more monstrious, then these beasts is the African Tiger Fish.

[demjor19]

The only thing more monstrious, then these beasts is the African Tiger Fish.

i don't think the ATF is even close!

[E_americanus]

I agree with americanus, but due to the shape of their head they dont seem to see well upfront and thats why they tilt their head to the side when they strike, the eyes on the side of the head provide 20 degrees of binocular vision to judge distance and attack with accuracy. At night its a different story, with the pupils fully dilated, sharpness of vision is comparable to that of an owl's. Just like cats, gars have a thin layer of special reflecting tissue behind each retina called tapetum lucidumm which acts like a mirror to concentrate all light when its dark (a definite advantage for a night active predator). This also causes fire red eyeshine at night when caught in a flashlight beam..

REFERENCE: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7866770&dopt=AbstractPlus

nice citation :) i have that paper but haven't read it in a while :)

that being said, vision is definitely a factor with a gar striking at an object, but the reasoning behind their striking from the side as opposed to 'just off the bow' is more a function of the shape of the snout and jaws...it doesn't make any sense for them to 'chomp' down at something directly in front of them, it would allow prey to escape and take a lot of energy (also against the resistance of the water).
swiping from the side utilizes the full range of the jaws, and can be done much more quickly (less resistance from the water since the jaws aren't opening straight up and down).
this is a major factor as to why gars swipe from the side--
--solomon

[Jakdarippa]

i don't think the ATF is even close!

Check out the jaws on this bad boy...:naughty:

[vinson lim]

24 inches


24 inchs = 2 ft.

soon reaching 48 inchs in anothr 5 month.....!!!

[vinson lim]

jst a ques, bout that TSN.....

u fed them a TSN? or ' 'he'' eat his tankmate ???

[vinson lim]

wat was that fish above???

fresh water fish? or a salt water fish?

do u know the ID of that fish ???

[demjor19]

wat was that fish above???

fresh water fish? or a salt water fish?

do u know the ID of that fish ???

thats a goliath tiger fish. freshwater.

[demjor19]

Check out the jaws on this bad boy...:naughty:

thats a big tiger fish! compare that to a big alligator gar! :D

[Jakdarippa]

wat was that fish above???

fresh water fish? or a salt water fish?

do u know the ID of that fish ???
African Tiger fish. fresh water, they sell small ones but considered very very rare and very speical, a real killing machine...but as you can see they also grow very large so like gator gars.. they require a huge inclosure..

[Jakdarippa]

jst a ques, bout that TSN.....

u fed them a TSN? or ' 'he'' eat his tankmate ???
Well i thought he would be too big to get eaten, but unfortunately
the "safe if they don't fit in their mouth" rule does not apply to gator gars..

[demjor19]

the fish you have posted is a goliath tiger fish (hydrocynus Goliath) the largest of the tiger fishes. there are a good number of people on this forum who have them. i wouldn't really call them rare although they are pretty expensive...but def. obtainable.

[DownUnder]

Goliath Tiger Fish... amazing... now tat's 1 ****en insane fish man! freshwater species? and i thought for a moment snakeheads were the Great Whites of freshwater... tat beast could take uR balls of if u waded on the wrong side of the water... cheers mate... thanx on the amazing pics...

[Red Devil]

:( :( :( what a waste.

[Jakdarippa]

:( :( :( what a waste.
Im sure all MFK agree when I say: Theres a thin line between a feeder and a tankmate.

[Bsixxx]

Im sure all MFK agree when I say: Theres a thin line between a feeder and a tankmate.

yup

you cant stop things like this

same thing happned to my festae
my damn gar ate him for the hell of it
:(


:cry:

[Jakdarippa]

24 inchs = 2 ft.

soon reaching 48 inchs in anothr 5 month.....!!!
Their growth has actually slowed down considerably and they are now startinig to gain more width..

[Red Devil]

24 inches

so if they are that big why did you put this little guy in with them... and have your camera ready too? Just curious...looks more like a planned event..especially that you already knew what they were like...

[Red Devil]

They'll eat anything put in their tank, so I house them alone in a 800 G. I'd say around 24 cms.

I am going with your statement above....... :irked:

[Jakdarippa]

Well I'd say thats a stupid question, one that I'm sure has been asked and answered several times on this page, and keeps being restated because the asker doesn't like the answer he/she is getting. :wall:

Really...Liz...I mean would it have been right if it was a guppy, molly or a gold fish perhaps? with preditory fish, anything goes... I had piranhas that enialated each other, the TSN (which by the way is a popular food fish in the Amazon and also a preditory fish) was infact 9 inches, living in my over stocked 120 g.. He was killing off my bumblebee chiclids at night and to balance things out I dropped him in with the gars (large tank with plenty hiding places, thinking hes too big to fit in their mouths anyway.)... unfortunatly i learned the hard way that they are a popular food fish with gars too. :headshake For the record, I by no means enjoy watching any creature suffer and infact tried to save this guy at one point but like i said it was too late too soon.. I dedicate this thread to anyone thinking of adding TSN's as tankmates..you seen what happened to pedro.. just dont do it.. :rip

[Red Devil]

well as far as i am concerned you answered the above questions looming in my mind with integrity and thoughtfulness.. this is a lesson learned and we will leave it at that..

[dunga]

bro you should of known better than to throw the tsn in there bad idea

[Druu]

Looks intentional to me. Instead of trying to scare the gars into letting go of the tsn, he decided to shoot pictures instead. What a jerk.

[pirarucu319]

what a waste..TSN as feeder??
that little rascal really have bad attitude toward tankmates
gar NORMALLY EAT anything fit to their mouth..
sometimes even NOT FIT to their mouth..
have u ever been bitter by that rascal?? :naughty:

[ESJBond007]

nice looking gator gars

[bobVillanueva]

cmon guys give the man a break... @_@ lets make friends here:)

though i have to say that i am quite guilty of getting entertained with the sight of the tsn's death...@_@ regardless of the reasons behind it, i'm sure we've all learned a thing or two through this thread...=/ poor tsn though.. well, whats done is done, sadly, thats it. let's just be more careful to avoid it...

with that aside, just wondrin, why are some gators appear darker than others?do they manifest this difference at such a young age? say 5 inches?

[Gr8KarmaSF]

dayum!

[Bogwoodbruce]

Wasted TSN.

[gibbonz]

wow..this is exactly what happened to me.
but im not sure which one of my monsters ate it. I happened to buy this TSN at LFS which is abt the same size of my snakeheads and floridas (20'). inside the pond i got 3 floridas (20'), a big gator(33'), 2 micropeltes (23'), a peacock bass (18')(RIP), and a 14' Red Devil which i think is super aggressive coz its still alive today.

THe TSN was there for only a nite.it was gone the next day.i dont know which one of them ate it. but mr gator is the king in the pond so i think he has the biggest chance of swallowing my TSN. next victim was my peacock bass. difference is the bass was in the pond for 2 weeks.

it's not really logical coz i thought the monsters will eat the smallest one first which is my red devil. but they didnt..

i was looking for another tank mate the other day but im afraid they might just beat the crap out of it. but for sure i wont belooking for a TSN.

i was thinking of an ATF...