What is a responsible "starve off" duration?

I have 2 floridas and zero experience with other types of gar, but I can vouch that my 2 flloridas were on live minnows when I purchased them. They now eat frozen tilapia, frozen and freeze-dried krill, silversides, earthworms, too. They have never taken a pellet, which I really regret. I started out trying silversides, since they resemble minnows. once they started taking silvers, they eventually went for the other foods. I purchased my 2 gars a 2 different times and my first gar took about 18 days before it finally ate. The second gar took about 10 days. It seemed to learn to eat by watching the first gar and other tank mates. The only ting I can add, is that I don't know if a healthy fish will not eat to the point of starvation. I think at some point, a fish will eat. I've never seen a fish starve to death. I'm sure it can possibly happen, but . . .

0 days. that is best especially for gar as small as ur gators.
there are many ways that dont involve starving that you should try. do a serach

im tryin to be helpful. i didnt know when i started either. now if u wanna be an a** thats fine and i wont help. if u want my help, im more than willing to help. its not easy to get most gar to do that. it takes time and effort.

Do you want my help or do you want to be an a**? I was not mean, i just posted alittle help. We have many many many threads on how to do this. heck in the past few pages there has been multiple threads on this perticular issue. Its called doing research. but we all have to start somewere







fact of the matter is ur gators are less than 12". this is about when we say to start tryin. less than that and you can greatly risk stunting the gar. it took me forever to get my gar to take prepared, using many different methods. i ended up just putting in food and feeders and kept doing this all the time. eventually the gar decided to try the food. try foods that look like feeders.

on another highly related note, your tank mates are going to make it hard to get ur gar off of live food. many of ur tank mates are highly suggested against.
changing ur tankmates will help ur quest.

Heres what I did for my two Florida...I got a wooden stick, the one you use for BBQ...very cheap;

I stick a piece of shrimp or tilapia and keep waving right next to their jaw, to the point of touching it. At first, they will try to swim away, but keep following them and they will eventually open their mouth. Once they take a bite at it, and realize its food, its game on.

It might take a few days, but its worth a shot. My first gar, ate within 3 days, the second one within the first try.

PS. Make sure at first, the pieces are small enough for them to swallow...the first time i gave a big piece and he just spat it out. I prefer as a first try, Tilapia as it is tender and softer than a shrimp/scallops.

Full disclosure: I never had a gator gar/longnose. Be careful as Gators tend to be more on the aggressive side and might take a whack at tankmates.

screaminleeman;3800173; said:

Sorry, I was not trying to come off jaded

Click to expand...

Jaded... pure


Basically man, when they are that young you just need to bulk them up and make sure they are healthy.
Like a newborn human baby for instance, you want them to eat healthy and what not, but you don't just rip the moms tit out of their mouth and replace it with a spoonful of organic soy protein and starve it till it takes it.
Just keep up with the feeders for a while longer and then when they get bigger you can get them off live.
Also I have an Alligator Gar as well, and when they get older they are very smart and very well aware of habits and patterns. They know what's going out around them outside the tank so once they get more accustom to feeding then you can feed them anything you want.

I am starting to try to get my Fl off feeders as well. I havn't tried this method yet, but it sounds promising. I read it on a thread buried way at the back.

Feed them only when they are hungry (don't starve though) and drop the feeders in one by one. Drop them in at a rate where they snap them up immediately upon entering the tank. After a few days of this start throwing in a krill or cut up piece of silverside in between feeders. If they don't eat them just be persistant. Don't leave feeders in the tank all the time so you can get them set on a proper feeding schedule. Eventually they will start eating the non live and then you can reduce the live and increase the non live.

I haven't tried this yet but this is the method I am going to start trying with in the next week or so. Hope that helps.