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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.