Hey a couple things, i have a couple young gars aswell, they hang out on the bottom fairly often, but especialy when they havnt' eat'n for abit, i sometimes dont feed them for 3-4 days depending on things.Anyways recently i was able to finaly get them converted over to dead food rather then feeders, as i have to travel an hour away for feeders and just couldnt do it anymore. I had an easy time with one, basicly of the two gars one is a really good hunter, and the other one not so much, they are siblings but... anyways if i put in 10 feeders, one would eat like 6 or 7 and the other would only get 3-4 because its slow to act and doesn't get a fish each strike.Because of this one was out growing the other quite noticeable.
So after awhile i decided i would start trying to feed it manualy. Mind you before this i had tried to feed the gar raw shrimp, cut into pieces appropriately sized, and they wouldnt eat it, a couple times they bit onto it but then dropped it. So anyways i started to take the feeders, i would grab it by its tail and let it thrash around at the top of the water, my finger tips just out of the water and the fish in, i would put it close to the small gar and it learned pretty quickly to come up and take it out of my fingers.Next time i ran out of feeders and i wasnt able to get anymore, i put a piece of shrimp in the water and wiggled it around for abit, and eventualy the small gar came and took it, and ate it. And i'v been feeding him like that ever since. The bigger one was more of a problem, he wouldnt take the shrimp, it would come up to it, like it was smelling it, then just swim away.
I tried every couple days when i fed the small one, but it wouldnt eat, it didnt eat for like 8 days. Finaly i bought a fillet of fish from the grocery store and tried that, and it took it right away like BAM! I'm pretty sure it has sensors in its mouth area that work like smelling does. Its so much more cheaper feeding it fish pieces from the store, the local fish store(an hour away) only had feeder guppies and they were soooo small, i would have to just buy whatever fish were on sale to feed my gar regularily, like swords or mollies, and i'd end up spending like 40-50$ for feeders that would last maby a couple weeks. Now i just spend like 8$ on a fillet that i freeze most of it and just thaw out chunks and cut into small pieces to feed them and it lasts awhile. Also i think its healthier as its getting pure fish meat versus the fact that feeders are mostly junk.
So yeah, i looked around and didnt find a ton of information on converting your fish over from feeders, gar specifically, so i thought i'd share what recently worked for me, good luck.
So after awhile i decided i would start trying to feed it manualy. Mind you before this i had tried to feed the gar raw shrimp, cut into pieces appropriately sized, and they wouldnt eat it, a couple times they bit onto it but then dropped it. So anyways i started to take the feeders, i would grab it by its tail and let it thrash around at the top of the water, my finger tips just out of the water and the fish in, i would put it close to the small gar and it learned pretty quickly to come up and take it out of my fingers.Next time i ran out of feeders and i wasnt able to get anymore, i put a piece of shrimp in the water and wiggled it around for abit, and eventualy the small gar came and took it, and ate it. And i'v been feeding him like that ever since. The bigger one was more of a problem, he wouldnt take the shrimp, it would come up to it, like it was smelling it, then just swim away.
I tried every couple days when i fed the small one, but it wouldnt eat, it didnt eat for like 8 days. Finaly i bought a fillet of fish from the grocery store and tried that, and it took it right away like BAM! I'm pretty sure it has sensors in its mouth area that work like smelling does. Its so much more cheaper feeding it fish pieces from the store, the local fish store(an hour away) only had feeder guppies and they were soooo small, i would have to just buy whatever fish were on sale to feed my gar regularily, like swords or mollies, and i'd end up spending like 40-50$ for feeders that would last maby a couple weeks. Now i just spend like 8$ on a fillet that i freeze most of it and just thaw out chunks and cut into small pieces to feed them and it lasts awhile. Also i think its healthier as its getting pure fish meat versus the fact that feeders are mostly junk.
So yeah, i looked around and didnt find a ton of information on converting your fish over from feeders, gar specifically, so i thought i'd share what recently worked for me, good luck.
