5yr Old Florida Gar Feeding Question

bmm172 · Jan 19, 2010

Just figured I would throw this out there and see if anyone else has any of the same issues. I have 2 Florida Gars, one is 5yrs old and the other is just under 2. The older gar has always been very skittish about eating. She (I labeled her a female), is about 18" and obviously ate pretty well for the first few yrs but now she is only interested in eating about 1 time a week. She eats silversides and freeze dried krill...could she be sick of eating the same foods? The younger gar will eat non stop and is not timid during feeding. I would just feel a bit more comfortable is she at 2x per week and more per feeding. Sometimes her one eating consists of 2 small silversides. She used to eat much more. I have gone through a lot of fish due to their aggressive nature and stealing food from her mouth. The tank is pretty calm as it stands...any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks - Brian

Spatula · Jan 19, 2010

How's the water temp? I've really noticed that with colder water these fish won't eat as much. Once the temp starts to go up, the feeders start to disappear

bmm172 · Jan 19, 2010

Temp is actually quite warm at 81.5....all water parameters are great also, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate less than 30.

I think it is more of a "fear" of eating due to many fish in the past being quite aggressive towards her. I have had an 18" marble sailfin catfish, 15" RTC, 18" Silver Arowana, among others that were purchased as babies but became too bold during feeding. The most recent was the Silver that I turned in December 2009 after my gar stopped eating for 2+ weeks. She would bite on a silverside then see the arowana coming, then spit it out.

It may just be that this behavior is programmed in her head now and will take a while to break. No more "experimental" fish...just gars and rays from here on out. Maybe if I switch to a new food like whole shrimp, nightcrawler etc...it will boost her appetite.

bmm172 · Jan 19, 2010

Here's a few pics...the timid eater is the one with more pronounced spots, the closer of the two in the 3rd pic and further back in the last pic.

Lepisosteus platyrhincus · Jan 19, 2010

nice gar. this is a bit of an odd behavior. hmmm.
im gonna have to wait on solomon on this one

Egon · Jan 19, 2010

She looks healthy! Do you think she's losing weight? The older fish may not need as many calories as they use to? Kinda like me, except the part where I slowed down on eating

bmm172 · Jan 19, 2010

She is healthy...maybe slimmed up slightly over the past year but not to the point of concern yet.

I have never tried to feed them shrimp but apparently many people do. I assume you feed them raw? and cut into chunks? I may give this a shot.

bmm172 · Jan 20, 2010

I am beginning to get concerned. I tried new types of food with no results. She is probably going on 8 days without eating now and was about 6 days without feeding prior to that then 12 days.

I offer food to her everyday but she has absolutely no interest in eating.

Could there be parasites? Infection? Anything else that could be causing this? The last thing I want to do is lose my florida to starvation...any thoughts??

Spatula · Jan 20, 2010

Gars can go awhile without eating, so don't panic. However we do have to get some food in this fish soon. My advice is to just keep trying to maybe put a bunch of goldfish in there and see if they start disappearing.

E_americanus · Jan 21, 2010

sorry for the delay in response...i had actually started typing one day before yesterday but lost it.

your fish will be fine. gars and other predatory fishes go on feeding strikes frequently and for unexplained reasons. i had a FL gar that i didn't see eat for months...didn't really look any worse for wear, and then all of a sudden it started eating again (have seen this in bichirs as well).

given the pics, the fish looks fine. i would just offer up what it was eating beforehand, and if it eats, it eats, if not, then make sure there is some other fish to take the uneaten food OR remove it.

again, fish will be fine, so don't mess with it too much. it's old enough and in captivity so it won't need to eat very frequently if it doesn't want to. keep us posted on how it's doing, but i wouldn't be concerned if it doesn't eat for a few weeks to a month (even more). just keep tabs on its appearance and let us know if you notice any anomalies. good luck--
--solomon


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