Gar ID

screaminleeman · Oct 24, 2014

divemaster99 said:
There's no way one could survive a PA winter is there? In a pond that it. I'm building a semi large one next April and I'm definitely going to get some longnose for it but if a gator could tolerate local temps that'd be a nice addition, keep those blue herons away .

Probably would be fine as long as there is some air holes kept open in the frozen surface for gas transfer.

I am now raising four Gator Gars for my farm pond to go with the Longnose gars.

I have lost double digit 12" + Florida gars in several different seasons to a zero percent survival rate.

The northern most natural habitat (Cypress bog) of the Gator Gar is in the extreme southern end of Maryland in Pocomoke. They live year round there. I am near the PA line, and I will see how it works next year.

screaminleeman · Oct 24, 2014

divemaster99 said:
There's no way one could survive a PA winter is there? In a pond that it. I'm building a semi large one next April and I'm definitely going to get some longnose for it but if a gator could tolerate local temps that'd be a nice addition, keep those blue herons away .

I LMAO at the Heron comment. Not positive if you are serious or not, but don't get Gator Gars as Heron control. It will not help in any way. Be super careful with the LNG also, I always grow them to over a foot before going into my farm pond due to. Herons have picked off a number of 12" - 14" Florida Gars.

A second key is to not have other aquatic predators with metabolism better for lower temperatures. This I believe is my problem even bigger than the Herons.

The Snapping turtles do NOT go dormant early enough in the winter for the Florida gars to escape them. Like I say, I have lost around 20 Florida Gar, but I have found only one dead one that was not the result of predation.

I seriously don't think any of the Florida gar including the one that I found a couple springs ago which was semi-decomposed in the leaf muck actually died from the temperature. I would bet you could keep them without issue with some sort of netting covering the pond.

divemaster99 · Oct 25, 2014

screaminleeman said:
I LMAO at the Heron comment. Not positive if you are serious or not, but don't get Gator Gars as Heron control. It will not help in any way. Be super careful with the LNG also, I always grow them to over a foot before going into my farm pond due to. Herons have picked off a number of 12" - 14" Florida Gars.

A second key is to not have other aquatic predators with metabolism better for lower temperatures. This I believe is my problem even bigger than the Herons.

The Snapping turtles do NOT go dormant early enough in the winter for the Florida gars to escape them. Like I say, I have lost around 20 Florida Gar, but I have found only one dead one that was not the result of predation.

I seriously don't think any of the Florida gar including the one that I found a couple springs ago which was semi-decomposed in the leaf muck actually died from the temperature. I would bet you could keep them without issue with some sort of netting covering the pond.

I wasn't going to get one for predator control, just thought that was funny, although if a heron saw a fish bigger than it I think it'd probably steer away from that fish at least. I've seen multiple first hand cases of flathead cats eating ducks and once a goose in the allegheny river. The fish I'd keep in the pond would be LNGs, a gator gar, Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds, and Yellow Bullheads so all do pretty good at higher temps. I have a plan to keep birds away and that's to put a thin metal wire all around the pond with some electric going through so any herons walking up would get a nice shock and fly away. I'm going to have to be careful with that wire though since I'm going to snorkel in this pond since it'll be. 1,200+ gallons

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