Cuban gar feeding frenzy...

...well, it's at least a group of gars and a group of feeders, with varying levels of "frenzy". just shot this with our field camera, so video isn't HD or anything - also just let it run for a while to get several attacks (some more successful than others) and other amusing events.

toward the end one of the gars chases a feeder in circles, and at the very end i switch to some underwater/in tank shots (fforward to 8:13).

i'll be moving these fish to the experimental tanks (hopefully) tomorrow. pics will be coming eventually as well--
--solomon

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Wiggles92;4951068; said:

Wow, those little Cubans are getting bigger pretty fast! How many feeders do they go through daily between all of them?

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yes they are indeed! i would have liked to have gotten them into the experimental tanks several days ago, but have just been too busy to get everything set up and tested. i have goldfish testers in the tanks now, and will hopefully get the CBGs in there tomorrow.

they go through a ton of feeders every day...no exact amount, but i bought 200 yesterday and they are probably 2/3 the way through the batch at this point (only 24 hours later). i feed them in groups so as to minimize feeder mortality/pollution, and to also make the feeding somewhat periodic. the experimental protocol we used for the SPG study was about 3 minnows constantly in the tank, so that is what we will be shooting for with the CBG study.

angryinsect;4951117; said:

what kinda feeders are you using?

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those are rosy red minnows (fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas).

i just snapped some photos so i should have some of those up shortly--

--solomon

ok here are some pics...tank is bare-bones basic setup (holding tank)...hence the utilitarian look to many of the photos. a couple shots are just to show groups of fish, others are individual shots. i will try to add more later, there is quite a bit of variability, with some individuals quite dark in pattern, and others much brighter.