picky gar...

... i know there have been posts about this before, I'm not really finding exactly what I need though with the searches.

I have a ~12"-14" florida, picked him up from snookn21 almost a year ago. Gar is in 180 with a pair of ~10" oscars, has been for a awhile now. I recently removed an aggressive Texas cichlid that was stressing all the fish out. The oscars generally leave the gar be, occasionally they give him a little bump or nudge but there is no chasing or anything.

Up to this point, I have been feeding the gar thawed shrimp stuffed with NLS pellets with no problem (delivering with a wooden skewer to get it past the oscars). I believe he was wild caught, and it took some time to get him to even take the shrimp. Bit of a pain but seemed to be working well. However, for the last couple of weeks the gar's appetite seems to be drastically decreasing. He now hasn't taken any food in about 4 days. Besides removing the Texas a month or so ago, there have been zero changes to the routine (feeding schedule, water changes, etc) and he appears to be healthy other than the lack of appetite.

So... thoughts or advice? Was thinking this may be a good time to try and get him onto pellets, but I'm not sure how long is too long to wait (in terms of him actually trying the pellets or associating them with being food).

Wiggles92 said:

Ditch the oscars as they're probably bothering the gar when you're not looking; their very presence could be stressing the gar.

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MonsterMinis said:

nature abhores a vaccum, when you took ten texas out one or both of your oscars became dominant in the tank. see it or not it is likely why your gar isnt eating. idk if snook ips his gar before sale, but this is a possability as well.

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These replies seem to be hitting on the general idea that I was worried about (the gar is the "odd man out" essentially). However, there isn't even a tail nip to show any evidence of the gar being attacked while I'm not in the room (which is several hours a day). I know that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't stressed. Not worried about parasites, I've had the gar too long to worry there.

I don't know which fish(es) I would like to get rid of, a tough call to say the least. What do you guys think about adding some dither fish? Maybe some CL's or a catfish, or maybe another gar?

I was able to get the gar to take a couple big chunks of shrimp stuffed w/pellet last night. I've decided to try and re-home him along with some of my other fish
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?471080-Florida-Gar-Texas-Severum-Fort-Wayne-IN-P-U-Only&p=5689340#post5689340

UPDATE in case anyone cares... I had no nibbles on rehoming the gar so I decided to shuffle a few things around and now the gar is in a 125 by himself. I measured him and he is only actually around 10", so he should be fine in there for now. It's been 2 days and he is now feeding very well and appears much more comfortable.


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