How I got my Gars to accept pellets

the.dutchman

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 29, 2009
11
0
0
Asia
Hi everyone! I know how frustrating it can be when you buy a nice fish, but it just refuses to accept pellets like the rest of them. Before buying the Gars, I visited numerous forums to get as much advice as I can on training the gars to accept pellets instead of live feeder fish (I do believe they get the most nutrition from high quality pellets, instead of feeder fish). I've finally succeeded, so I thought I'd share my experience here.

I bought two spotted gars (was told they are alligator gars) 4” each from my LFS roughly two months ago. I housed them in a 55g planted tank, with sand substrate (they tend to settle on the ground quite a bit). The first 4 days I fed them feeder guppies one a day, this helped them settle down a bit. After which, for the next two days, I didn’t feed them anything at all. 7th day, I started giving them small pieces of various types of fish and meat once a day (be careful while feeding, if any particle falls on the floor, be sure to take it out as it’ll catch fungus very very soon). I use to drop it just on top of the Gar, so that they can see it fall. This continued for almost a month, during which time I shifted them to a larger tank with a Silver Arowana and a TSN (both of which were on pellets). Once they had settled properly in the tank, I started giving meat to the gars once every two days (again, use to drop it right on top of the fish). This resulted in the Gars being hungry and watching the other fish gulp down the pellets. Overtime, they simply started following the Arowana and the TSN. Now they are more then happy to accept pellets all the time.

Hope this information helps!
 

Lepisosteus platyrhincus

Polypterus
MFK Member
Nov 9, 2008
6,765
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In the caiman den
wait, u starved 4" gars for a month just to get them on pellets?
 

the.dutchman

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 29, 2009
11
0
0
Asia
Lepisosteus platyrhincus;4401474; said:
wait, u starved 4" gars for a month just to get them on pellets?

No no not at all. I use to feed the gars every day, till such time they got settled in the larger tank. At which point, I fed them (gars) once every two days (they would go hungry a day between meals), whereas the Aro and TSN were still fed daily with pellets. The gars then automatically started following the other fish.
 

Lepisosteus platyrhincus

Polypterus
MFK Member
Nov 9, 2008
6,765
17
92
In the caiman den
oh ok. i missunderstood ur OP
 

Madding

The Ninth Holostei
MFK Member
May 11, 2009
3,628
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New York
Nice work. I have found that getting gars onto pellets is fairly easy with other fish species involved simply because gars seem to understand when they are being too slow/out-competed for food. This leads to biting anything that hits the surface during the race, and soon enough pellets (also fingers) are taken without complaint.

Getting a pure gar tank onto pellets seems to be more difficult (also I have noticed shortnose and tropicals seem to favor pellets more than florida, spotted and longnose. could just be my individual fish.)
 

UNREAL

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 6, 2012
142
0
0
Riyadh
I'm struggling with a super stubborn 20" Florida Gar...

He I starved him for 3-4 days... actually not starved him he was starving himself as I'm surving his Silver Arow & Clown Knife all sort of fancy pellets & dried shrimps... But he wont eat not LIVE AT ALL...

Even when it is time for live feeders I lose 3 or 4 feeders to the CK & Silver Aro before he gets his lazy ass moving towards his meal...

Now I buy live feeder quarantine them for at least a week... Feed them the fanciest pellets, brine shrimps, dried shrimps etc.. same as my other fish... then serve them to my gar where he misses most of them & they go to bellies of his tank mates...

What should I do to get him to switch to pellets & other dried food or even frozen food...
 

jpcampbell123

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Feb 18, 2011
1,966
497
122
In the water
i had one that was ga ga over pellets but it was also the largest of the ones i had at the time. i am getting six of them soon. cant wait to be part of the garmy again lol
 
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