The fastest way to train your gars to eat frozen foods

mqktandy

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 18, 2010
1,291
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Iowa
After battling with my first florida gar to get him to eat frozen foods which took almost a month I started working on a way to make it go faster. Normally the small gars we buy are attracted to the wiggle factor of live foods so getting them to take non live is quite difficult so I started fishing for gar...in my tank, just to see the fastest way to get them to take food. And here it is.

All you will need is
1 bag of the smallest shrimp you can find (got mine at walmart)
some small weight mono fishing line
and a filter outlet or area of current

Step 1:
Stop feeding your gar live foods for a few days prior to trying this to maximize success.

Step 2: thaw out a few pieces of shrimp and cut a piece of fishing line to the length that you will need it. You want to be able to tie it to something over the tank and have the piece of shrimp on the end mid level in the water.
Shrimp.JPG
line.JPG

Step 3: Now push one end of the fishing line threw the center of one end of the shrimp and out the side about 1/2" away. Just so the shrimp says on when you put it in the tank but the gar can pull it off the line after it takes it.
on line.JPG

Step 4: position the shrimp near a filter outlet or some other source of current. This keeps the piece moving around arousing the strike response of the gar. Try and keep it towards the mid level of the water column if you can.
in water.JPG

Step 5: Wait. the first couple times you do this make sure your gar can pull the food off the line. if he pulls on the line but cant get it off just give it a quick tug and itll come out but next time dont thread the food on so hard. This is by far the fastest method ive used. All told I have done this on 4 small gars, 3 floridas and 1 gator and every one of them took the shrimp by at least the 2nd day I did it. After a few feedings like this I start dropping it down to the bottom and they normally have no problem getting it. Hope this helps others train their gars quicker so that they can grow bigger and more healthy with the improved diet over feeders.
 
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kzimmerman

Piranha
MFK Member
Mar 18, 2009
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delmar md
Excellent! How big where the gars that you tried this on? I've got a florida that's about 10-11", and a YOY gator gar about 6" long. I think that the gator (his names slinky) might be too small for it yet, but the florida (Bluegill- never let 6yr olds name fish!) should be ready for it.
 

mrwinkle

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 17, 2009
786
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South Georgia
tried and tested by me, works like a charm, i used this technique on my 20" bowfin
 
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Madding

The Ninth Holostei
MFK Member
May 11, 2009
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Nice, I've used this tactic before. Otherwise I will just starve them and drop pieces onto their head until they bite it out of anger, then realize its edible and swallow. After doing that once they will always recognize it as food.
 

pharmaecopia

Polypterus
MFK Member
Aug 21, 2010
1,601
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Ontario, Canada
Madding;4928618; said:
Nice, I've used this tactic before. Otherwise I will just starve them and drop pieces onto their head until they bite it out of anger, then realize its edible and swallow. After doing that once they will always recognize it as food.
This is the best way to convert gator gars, by dropping it on their heads. They will bite anything that lands on their mouth. Only takes a day to convert them off live. Floridas I've always just starved them and offered food daily, longest was 10 days.
 

sbuse

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2009
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IN YOUR HEAD
i have tried this and didn't have patiance for it. i just have other fish with them that eat non-live and they pick it up. i don't starve my fish nor do i stop feeding them live and they just start eatting pellets. every fish i have eatts non-live and all except my dats (so far) eat pellets. my new wc fl gar was eatting live for the first week i had it then i put it with my other fish in the big tank. it saw the other gar eatting pellets and it just started to eat them aswell. if it works for you and others awsome! i just haven't had much luck with it my self.
 

xander

Manjuari
MFK Member
Sep 6, 2007
8,535
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Singapore
Great post, will surely try it on my cuban or fl gar! (Although I usually just throw prepared food in & they automatically take it down!)

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