Does anyone else's Florida Gar do this??

demjor19

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Dec 17, 2006
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this is starting to drive me nuts...my florida goes through phases where he will just bury his head in the glass and just start swimming and thrashing at it. he did it when he wasin my 75 and now he is doing it in the 180. there was a several month period where he was doing great. why did he start this again? i do two 25% water changes a week and of course i checked my parameters (thats the obvious). whatelse could it be. also...he has done this w/ tankmates and with no tankmates at all.

i have a video this time...
http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t244/KaraJ0/Monster%20Fish/?action=view&current=Picture144.flv
 

Polypterus

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Well I'm not fully sure what the deal is here..I have some Ideas what would cause this but for each of them there is an example of a fish in the same situation that did not do this..One thing is certain it ain't good (obvious huh?)

What I would suggest now while the fish is acting up is add some cover such as plants Etc...sometimes this will calm them down. Second thing I need to ask: how often and when does the fish do this?? Have you only seen this seasonally in spring or late summer?

Little bit about your tank would help also..size, filteration, location (is it in a high traffic area?), etc...
 

demjor19

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Polypterus;862242; said:
Well I'm not fully sure what the deal is here..I have some Ideas what would cause this but for each of them there is an example of a fish in the same situation that did not do this..One thing is certain it ain't good (obvious huh?)

What I would suggest now while the fish is acting up is add some cover such as plants Etc...sometimes this will calm them down. Second thing I need to ask: how often and when does the fish do this?? Have you only seen this seasonally in spring or late summer?

Little bit about your tank would help also..size, filteration, location (is it in a high traffic area?), etc...
we added a lot of plant coverage the other day and it did nothing. he is in 180 gallon (6'x2'x2') tank and i am running an AC 110. as far as to how often he does his....how about all the time! rarely he will go to the bottom and chill for a few minutes. i personally have owned him since the end of this past november. he has done it randomly since i have had him, but there was a previous time he done it very badly (which i also had a thread started to try and figure it out) and this time is the worst yet. his location now is lower traffic than the previous location (we moved). he has never shown signs of being jumpy. for example...if i walk into the room and he is calm he wont get scared. although most of the time he is doing this when i walk in to the room already. i hope this info helps. need anything else? if it was a tank parameter, which one would most likely cause behavior like this? i could buy some new test kits and do some retests.
thanks,
 

Polypterus

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Ammonia would be the water parameter most likely to cause such a thing..But it is the least likely to be an issue in most tanks as old as yours. I would suggest just retesting this.

It may just me your fishes disposition, in which case, there is nothing that can be done but I'm not so sure about this..Is there any clear issues with tankmates?

we should be able to Narrow this down eventually..
 

Vicious_Fish

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Very weird. My Florida is pretty chill and has never done anything like this before. He does rest on the bottom occasionally but spends most of his time resting on the surface waiting to be fed or he follows my oscar around the tank.
 

HiGhTiMeZ

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thats a little odd. it looks like he wants to go out. anyway, just maintain a good water for him until everything gets clearer.

btw, i think u have a spotted gar in there not a florida.
 

demjor19

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Polypterus;862350; said:
Ammonia would be the water parameter most likely to cause such a thing..But it is the least likely to be an issue in most tanks as old as yours. I would suggest just retesting this.

It may just me your fishes disposition, in which case, there is nothing that can be done but I'm not so sure about this..Is there any clear issues with tankmates?

we should be able to Narrow this down eventually..
its funny you should mention his tankmates. he was all by himself as long as hes been in the 180 and he has been freaking out the worst since I moved him into it from the 75. i figured i would find him some docile tankmates so i went fishing. i caught three 4-6 inch crappie to see if they would attract his attention. of course they didnt. no aggression what so ever...and he continues to go crazy. i guess i will just give the crappie to my friend to put in his pond.

FYI the 180 was just recently re-set up because of moving. i brought as much of the original water as i could, but it was only about 40 gallons worth. i would have given it a chance to cycle more, but because of the long move i didnt have much choice.

also...he used to be almost black. after the move his coloration lightened substantially. could this be an effect of the ammonia level?
 

demjor19

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if it is the ammonia causing his crazy actions...couldnt that also be causing stress, which would effect his coloration? i will retest tomorrow and let you know what i come up with.
 

Bsixxx

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just throwing this out there

but perhaps mating behavior?

because of his reflection
 
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