Florida Gar will not eat unless hand feed with long tweezers or hand

[Ca5566]

So i am encountering this issue with my new florida gar, it is really picky about food.. Got it 2 weeks back at about 12 or 13cm, Refused food for 2 days until i bought and prepared some smelts and froze the meat and tweezer feed him twice daily for a week with only smelts cause thats the only food the gar eats. And by picky its really picky, it spits out and reject mealworms, don't even bother touching hikari cichlid gold pellets or grand sumo pellets ONLY smelt meat.

This week i decide to feed it some shrimp because he is living with a Emperor Snakehead that is a little smaller than he is and i want to feed the snakehead something with high astaxanthin to help bring out its red color while its still young.

Good news is he took 2 shrimp and stopped accepting shrimps with tweezer feeding (this is normal for my gar, it only eats 2 pieces of smelt meat and reject any more, its at 14cm).. I wanna ask if any experienced gar keepers know a solution to this or if the gar will turn into a fish that would take any thing meaty like my snakehead would? Because if i do not hand feed/tweezer feed the gar would just let whatever food sink and the snakehead will eat it instead :/

 

[Ca5566]

Seller told me he feeds all the gars hikari pellets which i bought and doesnt work for the one i got from him.. And i do not wish to feed live since its accepting dead smelt meat. And from research i dont think smelt long term is good because smelt is high in thiaminase

 

[tlindsey]

Seller told me he feeds all the gars hikari pellets which i bought and doesnt work for the one i got from him.. And i do not wish to feed live since its accepting dead smelt meat. And from research i dont think smelt long term is good because smelt is high in thiaminase

You will have to stop feeding smelt for a few days and hopefully it will start eating pellets. I suggest even rubbing pellets on a smelt prior to feeding. The smelt smelled pellets may entice the Gar to eat them. I personally like Hikari floating Carnivore sticks because of the shape and the food floats. Also Tilapia would be a better option than the Smelt imo. Personally had a Florida Gar that ate all the foods I stated about.

 

[jjohnwm]

Yeah...getting a gar onto pellets would be much easier using floating pellets . And housing a slow methodical feeder like a gar together with a (likely) ravenous eater like a Channa certainly adds to the difficulty of feeding him anything, let alone getting him onto something he doesn't initially want to eat.

 

[Ca5566]

You will have to stop feeding smelt for a few days and hopefully it will start eating pellets. I suggest even rubbing pellets on a smelt prior to feeding. The smelt smelled pellets may entice the Gar to eat them. I personally like Hikari floating Carnivore sticks because of the shape and the food floats. Also Tilapia would be a better option than the Smelt imo. Personally had a Florida Gar that ate all the foods I stated about.

Thanks for the advice! Will give it a shot, just bought some frozen tilapia hoping the gar accepts it

 

[Ca5566]

Yeah...getting a gar onto pellets would be much easier using floating pellets . And housing a slow methodical feeder like a gar together with a (likely) ravenous eater like a Channa certainly adds to the difficulty of feeding him anything, let alone getting him onto something he doesn't initially want to eat.

Yea my channa maru is very ravenous eater would eat anything except pellet.. and i usually keep him away when feeding the gar