first time alligator gar

agra perera

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 31, 2014
43
2
0
sri lanka
hellow. Im new to monsterfishkeepers.com. and also its my first time keeping a alligator gar.
I have a 3.5'*1.5'*1.5' glass tank in my bed room with some 4" giant freshwater river prawns. And one tank cleaner fish. Im going to buy a 6" alligator gar to put it in the glass tank. My question is will the alligator gar eat the river prawn. And i do know how big these gars get. So i have a bigger 10'*10'*1.5' fishtank to move him in the future. Plz give me some tips to help me keep my ne gator gar.
 

cnel124

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 30, 2013
650
0
31
Bangkok
Yes. Your gar will eat anything that can fit in its mouth. It may even just kill your river prawns.

A 10x10x1.5 sounds ok until the gar gets to be 6 foot (if it does ever reach that size).

I would recommend that you get Tropical gars or somethen, they don't get as big. But if you're dead set on a Alligator, a 10x10x1.5 doesn't sound like a bad place to start, but a little bit more depth maybe like a 2 foot tank would most likely be better in favor of the gar.
 

fuzzlebug

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 3, 2014
419
62
46
scotland
Yes. Your gar will eat anything that can fit in its mouth. It may even just kill your river prawns.

A 10x10x1.5 sounds ok until the gar gets to be 6 foot (if it does ever reach that size).

I would recommend that you get Tropical gars or somethen, they don't get as big. But if you're dead set on a Alligator, a 10x10x1.5 doesn't sound like a bad place to start, but a little bit more depth maybe like a 2 foot tank would most likely be better in favor of the gar.
+1
Go with a different gar, Florida or spotted would do better. Or a long nose, they get pretty big(30"+) but not monstrous like alligator gar.

Sent from my Hudl HT7S3 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 

Bigcatfishrule

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 10, 2014
268
17
18
Victoria, Australia
Alligator get get to 10ft long. Easy. Google it. You would need at least a 30-40ft tank or pond. That is at least 8ft deep. In other words, please, please don't get an alligator gar. They are one fish that probably only a handful of private aquarists in the world would be able to accommodate long-term. Leave the keeping of fish like that to rivers and public aquaria. Unless you are a millionaire and can afford a tank the size of an olympic swimming pool, but twice as deep. Please, for the fishes sake, and to save yourself some major headaches later on.
 

cnel124

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 30, 2013
650
0
31
Bangkok
Alligator get get to 10ft long. Easy. Google it. You would need at least a 30-40ft tank or pond. That is at least 8ft deep. In other words, please, please don't get an alligator gar. They are one fish that probably only a handful of private aquarists in the world would be able to accommodate long-term. Leave the keeping of fish like that to rivers and public aquaria. Unless you are a millionaire and can afford a tank the size of an olympic swimming pool, but twice as deep. Please, for the fishes sake, and to save yourself some major headaches later on.
Huh... 10 foot long easy? They used to get that big, but sports fishing and poaching has led to many of the Alligators which were at the 10 foot spectrum to be rare in the wild. In aquariums, according to the Gar Species Profile sticky which is available in the gar and bowfins section of the forum, Alligator gars reach 36-48 inches most of the time. In the Bangkok aquarium, they have Alligator gars in a tank more than large enough for them and they are only 5 foot maximum?

Yeah I said 6 foot, I was exaggerating.
 

fwprawn

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2011
3,441
7
38
New England
I would do your research BEFORE getting the fish. It is not suited to your current tank, given their rapid growth rate, and the prawns would not do well. Even if the gar doesn't kill / eat them; the prawns are actually likely to kill the fish, by harrassing it, if not outright eating it.
 

agra perera

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 31, 2014
43
2
0
sri lanka
Well im not so sure its really alligator gar. the guy whose selling me the fish he told me that its a alligator gar. If it needs a bigger tank than the 10'*10'*1.5' tank i can always make it a 20'*10'*1.5' tank. Cause i have 2 10'*10'*1.5' size tanks right next to each other . So i can make the two tanks one. Buti can not do that untill my 19'*3.5'*3' tank is built. and i do have lots of other kinds of fish. 14 full grown pacus, 10 fully grown giant gouramis, 1 big size catfish, 1 fully grown clown knife fish, 1 red tail catfish 2.5', and other kinds of small fish like carps. Goldies , and also crayfish, crabs, snakeheads, eels, etc.....
 
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