2 New Gars

[MonsterMinis]

I raised my florida from a small guy to 16"+ this past year on rosys and goldfish.. he started takeing pellets about 12" and w/out any issues. and have not seen the issues that other species have with thiamine. I'm not sure how everyone else feels in reguards to Gar but IMO this species being a piscivore in nature has some way of dealing with it.. Sol, Pej, or madding can prolly give a better answer to this. and have not had any issues feeding them. But I do def agree with gutt-loading/feeding the feeders a good quality food. Healthy food = healthy gars.

they eat alot their first year.. i would go threw approx 100 rosys a week for 1 gar.

 

[Madding]

How are you filtering, just out of curiosity?

 

[Druthlen]

Well, Keep in mind this is my first pond so I don't really know what I am doing. I purchased a 3000 GPH pump. I put that pump into a box. The water passes through a fine media and then a course media. Then it passes across these black balls that claim they will grow beneficial bacteria on them. The water is then pumped into the waterfall which had a large reservoir so I put 8 -10 pounds of lava rock into it so that as the water flows over the rock and then down the waterfall. The alarming thing is that when I started there was no foam at the waterfall. Now there is a slight amount of foam at the waterfall. Im going to get a test kit and run a test to make sure its ammonia and nitrate aren't at deadly levels.

Chemically I have thrown in 9 oz of Kordon NovAqua water conditioner and 1/2 cup of Pond AmQuel+

The good news is that I threw in 20 rosey reds at 6:30 PM last night. It is now 9:30 am and there are only 9 left. Both gar ate 11 rosey in alittle more then 12 hrs.

The bad news is Im going to have to get more Rosey's. Wasn't really planning on going anywhere but these Gars are hungry SOB's. Im thinking of getting a mixture of guppies and rosey's and I would like some shrimp but don't know where I could get some for cheap.

 

[Wiggles92]

Well, Keep in mind this is my first pond so I don't really know what I am doing. I purchased a 3000 GPH pump. I put that pump into a box. The water passes through a fine media and then a course media. Then it passes across these black balls that claim they will grow beneficial bacteria on them. The water is then pumped into the waterfall which had a large reservoir so I put 8 -10 pounds of lava rock into it so that as the water flows over the rock and then down the waterfall. The alarming thing is that when I started there was no foam at the waterfall. Now there is a slight amount of foam at the waterfall. Im going to get a test kit and run a test to make sure its ammonia and nitrate aren't at deadly levels.

Chemically I have thrown in 9 oz of Kordon NovAqua water conditioner and 1/2 cup of Pond AmQuel+

The good news is that I threw in 20 rosey reds at 6:30 PM last night. It is now 9:30 am and there are only 9 left. Both gar ate 11 rosey in alittle more then 12 hrs.

The bad news is Im going to have to get more Rosey's. Wasn't really planning on going anywhere but these Gars are hungry SOB's. Im thinking of getting a mixture of guppies and rosey's and I would like some shrimp but don't know where I could get some for cheap.

Be sure to clean the filter media regularly to help avoid poor water quality. Gars are pretty tough when it comes to nitrates and the like, but they still will be effected if they build up to a toxic level. The main thing to avoid with gars is rapid swings in temperature, nitrates, etc.; they can deal with slow increases fairly well but not quick spikes.

Gars are eating machines, especially at that size. I went through 100 feeder guppies in the span of a few days when I was growing out my three longnose gars from about 2" in June 2010 to now 16" and 18" (Third one went to Madding). It eventually got to the point were I went through 100 rosy reds (pond-raised) in that amount of time, then 50 small goldfish (pond-raised) in that same amount of time. These fish are not cheap to keep well-fed when they are on live food, so get them onto prepared foods and/or pellets ASAP.

 

[Cheesetian]

If i were you, i would've bought larger gars instead of 6" juveniles. The reason being it's a huge body of water, even for an adult Florida in captivity so for your two babies, it's Russia man. It's gonna' be really hard for them to hunt anything because the distance between ends is so vast. A tiny red platy is gonna' be invisible, i wonder how they even ate like you said. Personally, i'd throw them in a 20g like Michael suggested previously. While they're in there growing and eating, do up the pond properly. Then you can deport them back to Russia. Just my 2c worth on your latest acquisition. Interesting pond by the way!

 

[Druthlen]

Well, I tested the water in the pond. Good news, I have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrate.

Bad news I have 30+ on General hardness, and 240 ppm Carbonate hardness and the pH is 9+.

So do I panic and get them out of there? Mind you I only have a cooler for them and cant get a tank as I cant spend anymore money atm. This is my local tap water so If I use tap in the cooler it wont fix the problem. Howdo I lower the PH back to 7 ish?

Thanks btw for all the advice!

 

[Druthlen]

Oh and I bought the cheapest Gar I could find. Everone wanted at least 29.99 for 8" Gars. I found a guy that had 6" for 14.99 and jumped on it.

That and he sold my 20 roseys for 1 dollar! Petsmart wanted WAY more.

Got 5 words for you

Got a cheap ass wife!

 

[E_americanus]

Be sure to clean the filter media regularly to help avoid poor water quality. Gars are pretty tough when it comes to nitrates and the like, but they still will be effected if they build up to a toxic level. The main thing to avoid with gars is rapid swings in temperature, nitrates, etc.; they can deal with slow increases fairly well but not quick spikes.

Gars are eating machines, especially at that size. I went through 100 feeder guppies in the span of a few days when I was growing out my three longnose gars from about 2" in June 2010 to now 16" and 18" (Third one went to Madding). It eventually got to the point were I went through 100 rosy reds (pond-raised) in that amount of time, then 50 small goldfish (pond-raised) in that same amount of time. These fish are not cheap to keep well-fed when they are on live food, so get them onto prepared foods and/or pellets ASAP.

gars can take pretty large variation in temperature, but best to stay within 65-85F. for FLGs i would recommend 75-80F. gars are generally not affected by nitrates, but they are sensitive (especially when young) to nitrites and ammonia...those are the compounds to test/watch out for. nitrates are removed with regular water changes and/or plants.

to the OP -

it sounds like your pond may not even be cycled. i would look up some basic aquarium info before you proceed with ANY more fish. the water conditioner will only temporarily keep the water detox'd, and you are looking at a spike in the near future as the tank cycles. you should not have added any fish unless the tank was cycled.

if you have anybody you know or a trust LFS that has some already established biomedia (such as a sponge that has been sitting in a sump, or bioballs), then i would get some from them and that will help get your tank cycled and eventually established.

i would closely monitor the small gars as they will be affected by the upcoming spike. as mentioned earlier, your best bet is to get them out of that pond and just keep them in a 20g long tank until they are about 8" or so and hopefully by then your pond will be in better shape.

lots of things to cover in this scenario, so let us know if you have further questions, etc--
--solomon

 

[pharmaecopia]

The water passes through a fine media and then a course media.

You would be best switching this around, the coarse media then the finer media. The coarser media will catch larger particles that could clog the finer media. What gets throug is then captured by te finer media.

As the experts have already said, the gars would do better in a smaller tank to allow them to catch food easier.

 

[Druthlen]

*Smacks face*

Googled cycling. Got it.

Ok Ill keep the Gars in the cooler. The roseys Ill use to cycle the pond cuz well I dont care if they all die.

Thanks guys. Sorry for the ignorance.

In my defence I did spent alot of time reading Gar forums. Never once was mentioned gut loading or cycling.

Edit: I even read here that Gars were a just add water fish....well I did just that and that seems to be incorrect.