Gar feeding

[m245]

Every time I put freeders into the tank, other more agile fish will clear them up in a couple of seconds before my not-so-agile gar has a chance to get one. Any suggestions besides seperating them?

 

[packer43064]

I wouldn't feed feeders, try shrimp from the frozen section or nightcrawlers. Mine will come to the top, I"m guessing your doesn't. Ummm, maybe distracting the others. What the tank size and the inhabitants.

 

[Journeykc]

Yeah, as much as i hate to say it, you should try shrimp, unless you want to saturate the tank with feeders. Gar are patient eaters and normally don't try real hard to get the feeders. I still say you should try live as long as possible, but in your case, resistance may be futile

 

[justonemoretank]

What are the tankmates? You may find problems down the road in terms of compatibility (other than at feeding time), and find that it's necessary to separate them anyway. Big, fast, boisterous tankmates are rarely good idea for gar; they can cause them to injure themselves running into the tank, or jump out, or if there is a cover, they can injure themselves hitting it. Gar are actually very calculating, timid fish; they aren't the "monsters" most perceive them to be, in my opinion. So, I guess what I'm saying is, after examining your tankmate selection, you may feel the need to separate them anyway, so feeding won't be an issue.

 

[Conner]

When I had my 2 pbass, pike cichlid, datnoid, and snook all together with my florida gar, I basically just had to dump enough feeders in so that the gar had a chance of getting some. Eventually my gar learned to get aggressive, and I actually saw him snatch feeders from right in front of the other fish (once he snatched one right out of the pikes mouth!).

I think it would help if you started feeder other foods as well. Market shrimp and tilapia fillets are usually accepted pretty quickly, as well as freeze dried krill. The krill is a good choice, because it floats, and the gar is more likely to go after something floating over something sitting on the bottom. The other fish also seem to lose some of the "urgency" of going after live feeders, and the whole feeding session is calmer and more civilized (at least in my tank).

I dont' have the pbass anymore, but the gar learned to be an aggressive eater, and now I don't have to worry about him.

 

[m245]

It is this kind of fish (I don't know their name) that causes the problem. If they are not fed for a few days, they will tear flesh from the smaller ones in the pack to eat. Though they are very aggresive, they do no harm to my gar apart from letting it starve.

 

[Conner]

Those are peacock bass. Not a great tankmate for gars. You'll want to move the gar into a separate tank if you can, especially if the bass are already large in relation to the gar. The gar will likely end up starving to death with those tankmates, unless you are very careful to make sure he eats at feeding time. They are also likely to turn him into a very nervous, flightly fish, which means he's more likely to ram the glass of the tank and injure himself, or leap from the top and dry out outside the tank.

 

[m245]

I cannot seperate them at the moment. I will try to saturate the tank with feeders and see what will happen.
The gar is such a gentle and sometimes clumsy eater compared to other meat eating fish. I wonder how they have been able to survive since prehistoric times.

 

[jay_leask]

i hand feed mine silversides. i just dangle them infront of him, anything else gets close i move it. or try putting more feeders in, i put about 50 in at a time(only once a month). mine usually gets about 5 or 6.

 

[Gar keeper]

Gar are actually very calculating, timid fish; they aren't the "monsters" most perceive them to be, in my opinion.

You my friend have never owned an Atractosteus species


But seriously thanks for that, I had just gotten to work and was still tired and groggy and when I read that I laughed so hard that now I'm wide awake and ready to attack the day.