What temps do you guys keep your gar?

MonsterMinis

Feeder Fish
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Apr 28, 2009
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I'm wondering what temps to set the pool at for our gar and am curiouse to hear what everyone else keeps their gars at? the only species our pool will NOT be holding atm are alligator, short-nose, and spotted. It will house floridas,longnose,cuban,tropicals ... so I'm trying to figure out a good average temp to aim for... I'm thinking around 70? but I'm concerned it may be abit low for the trops and cuban? imput would be great!
 

pharmaecopia

Polypterus
MFK Member
Aug 21, 2010
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I keep my Cubans at 78F. If I were to lower the temps I'd personally try to keep it above 72F myself.

My other gars I will comfortably keep lower. Floridas, gators, longnose min temp would be 65F. Heaters are set to this mainly to prevent further drops in temperature. Generally doesn't get anywhere near this low range temp as the pump running generates some heat.

You might find that with your filtration set up the temp might stay above that 70F mark.
 

sbuse

Feeder Fish
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Jul 1, 2009
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I wouldn't risk lower then 73-75 on the Trops and Cuban. I never let my tank get below 75 with my Cuban. From Richards mouth they are to rare and expensive to risk messing with temps.

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sbuse

Feeder Fish
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Jul 1, 2009
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I currently keep the tank at 80-83 but it is my summer temps. And they are linked in my ray system.

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HungDang

Piranha
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Nov 29, 2010
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I found spotted gar do very well with temperature from 80-90F, I see mines eat the most and more active when water temperature is around that.
 

MonsterMinis

Feeder Fish
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Apr 28, 2009
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Wisconsin
Thanks guys! I want to keep them warm enough obviousely as you put it well scott.. it would be a dumb reason to lose fish over but I also want to be realistic. atm they are being kept around 76 and figured now would be a good time to re-evaluate... but I think I'mna stick to 76 w/ back-ups set to 72. Thankfully the pools average temp w/out heat is 61 already so not tooo horrible of a temp increase.. i'm just worried mainly for next winter. we plan on running 2 500watts on a controler set too 76 then( it can only handle up to 1k watts and i'de rather split it into 2 units so if one burns out the back-ups aren't orking to hard) and moving the 2 300watt aqueons set to 72 as backup. I'm thinking i may need to get another double 500 set-up =/ 1,600watts just doesn't seem like enough. I know the general rule of thumb is 2.5 watts per gallon. but I've never needed that much before. but it is directly on the concrete basement floor.
 

sbuse

Feeder Fish
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Jul 1, 2009
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You should look into a pool heater. It will be cheaper in the long run.

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