Gar sizes and tank requirements

koltsix;4437704; said:

It's the best approach to raise any fish. Lol! I'll just offer this advice, go big when buying your first tank as big as you can reasonably afford. Monsterfishkeeping is like some sort of disease that just keeps making you want more and more. You'll be in no better condition to buy a nice sized tank as the first time you buy one(assuming it is your first time). Once you set-up a tank think what a pain in the arse it'll be to find a place for the new tank to be set-up since the old one will have to remain up while the new one cycles. Plus you'll have to have all that self control to pass up cool fish while you save up funds to purchase the new tank, unless you got it like that. Personally if I had it to do all over again I would start with a 300 gallon! As for the gar sizes thing I think the tank should be at least twice as long as the gar being put in it and at least as deep as the fish is long. Also from what I heard Gar's grow to about 23-24 inches in about 2-3 years and that's when they reach sexual maturity. While I know growth rates will differ figure this as a minimum so buy a tank accordingly.

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The best tactic to prepare for a gar is to prepare accordingly.

These fish require having many different sized tanks throughout their life, not just one big one. You need to carefully step the fish up in stages throughout it's growth as the fish dictates the need to do so.

Certain species also require different tank setup and care... You can not try to keep a Longnosed like a tropical, a Spotted like a shortnosed or a Florida like a gator. They require specific conditions at different stages of life.

there is no end all single fit guideline that works here. it is species specific and individual.

makbarracuda;4438290; said:

ok, i'm doing research on each species. these are my findings:

Long nose gar: 67" world record
shortnose gar: 40" world record
alligator gar: up to 10' caught in 1910
florida gar: up to 36" record says 35, but found a state saying their record stands at 36"
cuban gar: 69" world record
tropical gar:47" world record
spotted gar: 39" world record

all records are photo verified to confirm they are for real. i know that they are the extremes but this should def be included into a sticky for new keepers of gar.

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do you mind posting the records and photos that verify this? i've been looking for it but can't seem to find them!

can you think of something to do so that we can sticky it? i'm not entirely sure a sticky that just shows the record size gars would be that useful.

reGARding your second point, i have to disagree that the info is helpful towards new keepers of gar. already most have the misconception that gars grow exceedingly huge (eg: gator gars get to 10++ feet), and also somehow form the impression that it's their size that makes gars challenging to keep. i believe that using the record size of gars as introductory material for new keepers would only reinforce these misconceptions.

while imo not too useful, if you can verify that bit of information posted above, it would definately be interesting (especially the photos part!).

what do you think?

xander

koltsix;4437960; said:

Funny and I thought I was agreeing with you. I don't remember suggesting any one fix for all Gar. As a matter of fact I believe I ended my post with buy a tank accordingly. The only suggestion I really gave was buying as big a tank as possible for maximum comfort or do you disagree with that statement? I think you'll find people far and few between who would disagree with that statement. Fish live in smaller bodies of water at different stages of life for 2 primary reasons predation and available food sources. Since none of those are present in a tank why shouldn't we buy as big a tank as we can afford? Is it bad for the fish somehow? Also am I wrong saying it's harder to set-up a new tank when one is already set-up and taking up space? You are perhaps the first person ever on here to suggest(that I know of) that a big tank is counter productive? So since this is new to me, please enlighten me.

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with small (read: YOY) gar, having excessive space can be counter productive and potentially fatal. perhaps especially so for the more skittish species of gar (shortnose). i'll quickly point out some points on keeping a small fish in a big tank in bullet point form as it might be easier to comprehend.

Food source--
depending on how big a tank we're talking about, having too large a tank could negatively impact a young gars growth. yoy gars need to be fed evryday, and having too large a tank could result in them having a tough time locating and or finding food.

Psychological comfort--
again, too large a tank could cause stress to a small gar as it would feel vulnerable to predation. a smaller tank would help a yoy gar feel more secure. covering the sides of the tank, along with adding plants/decor would further improve this. this might be especially so with wild caught gars as they are not used to dealing with the sort of lateral agitation from keeping them in tanks.

Physical safety--
when scared, gars readily and voraciously dart in random directions. given enough space, any gar can gain enough speed so that when it hits into the tank walls, it breaks it's back. take a 6" gar in a 20 gal, when it darts off, it will ram into the tank walls, but not with enough speed to kill itself. however, put the same fish in a 120 gal and you might have a dead fish/one with a broken back. although this is also true with larger gars, they are less skittish (with the exception of shortnose gars, hence the padding on the sides of richard's tanks), so back breaking occurs somewhat less often.

hope that helps. i may be incorrect here and there, so if you see the gar gurus hanging me out to dry....



xander

makbarracuda;4438488; said:

http://www.fishing-worldrecords.com/gars/_menue-gars.htm
this is the website of records

as i would add these to the sticky, iwould also add biggest grown in a tank; create write ins and what not for mfk members and keep it updated on the largest grown in a tank for each species.and as i said in the original post : tankmates, setup sizes, and the equation for figuring a size enclosure for a growing gar. i can see how huge gars would scare new gar enthusiasts. but it may also keep alot of gars from being purchased, that shouldn't.

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some of those listings are accurate as they can are supported by other sources, but many are sketchy at best as gar ID has not been great over the past decades. i would take most of the listings with a grain of salt, and not use them for max sizes until further supporting info can be found.

for now, if you want to look at max sizes of gars, go to fishbase.org as they generally have the most accurate info. except on the spotted gar, which traces back to a very old source that probably confused it with a tropical or longnose (believe it or not) in mexico (there are no 150cm spotted gars).--
--solomon

To the OP: I would agree with most peoples answers here regarding individual fish observation, though I will note that 1.5' is in my opinion never going to be wide enough for a non-stunted/deformed gar.

To the world records: The 10' gator gar pic is a source of a lot of debate/discussion... 1910 was very long ago and there is no way of verifying length in that photograph.