I planned on either doing a 55 gallon QT or just putting them directly into a 300 gallon, but do any of you have trouble getting them off of live foods?
Want to try gars
- Thread starter SawickiB
- Start date
I don't plan on ever getting mine of of live food.
I do plan on getting him hand fed and on to dead stuff. But not off of live food. Studies show that fish that hunt in the wild do better when they can hunt on their own. I have a year round supply of minnows and they are free in the summer, I fish a lot.
If you look @ the pix in my thread "pix of my gar" you will see how bare the 55 G tank is. it's to keep him with enough room..
And not to hurt his self thrashing around when he does hunt. He's way faster on a side swipe then any Oscar or Jack Dempsy I ever had.
OHIOMFK gives great advice here.
And my thread "pix of my gar" to see what OhioMFK is talking about with tank setup.
I keep it bare and open so he can have room to strike. The Gar side swipes faster then any Oscar or chichlid strikes period.
I also have 3 sides of the tank blacked out with a garbage bag. both sides and the front. this is so he knows where his space starts and stops.
Also The tank is located next to the entrance between the dinning room and kitchen so there is a lot of foot traffic. I don't want him spooked as there are 4 kids the wife and me.
So far the bag is working, no one has seen him dart once, he just glides around.
He also spends over 50% of his time up top in the floating plants.
These fish don't need magical care, just the right environment to live in.
Another great tank setup is Lepisosteus's 220 tank he had them in.
good cover but lots of room to move. ( I hope my 150 looks 1/2 that good)
I did a metric ton of reading on these guys before I sought one out.
Then found this place and did what you are doing.
Sought real world advice from the guys that have them.
Rich
I do plan on getting him hand fed and on to dead stuff. But not off of live food. Studies show that fish that hunt in the wild do better when they can hunt on their own. I have a year round supply of minnows and they are free in the summer, I fish a lot.
If you look @ the pix in my thread "pix of my gar" you will see how bare the 55 G tank is. it's to keep him with enough room..
And not to hurt his self thrashing around when he does hunt. He's way faster on a side swipe then any Oscar or Jack Dempsy I ever had.
OHIOMFK gives great advice here.
Also see "this is just a tribute" by our Canadian Brother Lepisosteus
And my thread "pix of my gar" to see what OhioMFK is talking about with tank setup.
I keep it bare and open so he can have room to strike. The Gar side swipes faster then any Oscar or chichlid strikes period.
I also have 3 sides of the tank blacked out with a garbage bag. both sides and the front. this is so he knows where his space starts and stops.
Also The tank is located next to the entrance between the dinning room and kitchen so there is a lot of foot traffic. I don't want him spooked as there are 4 kids the wife and me.
So far the bag is working, no one has seen him dart once, he just glides around.
He also spends over 50% of his time up top in the floating plants.
These fish don't need magical care, just the right environment to live in.
Another great tank setup is Lepisosteus's 220 tank he had them in.
good cover but lots of room to move. ( I hope my 150 looks 1/2 that good)
I did a metric ton of reading on these guys before I sought one out.
Then found this place and did what you are doing.
Sought real world advice from the guys that have them.
Rich
Thanks alot, i think i will most likely buy a batch of 2-5 gars at small sizes, and put them in they 55 gallon just to get them eating what i want and get them used to people, then moved to the 300 gallon. I wont be buying any gars until i have the 300 gallon and until i know a ton as well about them haha
However if i can only feed them live foods then i wouldnt be so comfortable with getting any, i would however have no problem feeding them frozen fish.
However if i can only feed them live foods then i wouldnt be so comfortable with getting any, i would however have no problem feeding them frozen fish.
Saw, you do not need to feed them only live foods. I believe what reptilerescued was saying is that he does not plan to completely get his gar off feeders. As he stated he plans to get them hand fed on dead fish. Which can be bought at your local grocery store. Also uncooked shrimp are a good part of the diet as well. It is my belief as well that feeders are good to be given. It is honestly up to you completely if you decide to keep them in live or convert to frozens and or pellets. There are a multitude of arguments for both sides however in my opinion i concur with reptilerescued. I have done something similar to reptile with my tank. I have a black background on three out of the four glass panes. During the day my gar stay at the top of the tank and at night he moves around the bottom. I love how they will slither like a snake on the bottom of the tank barely moving to sneak upon their prey. I was leary on gar myself, i always prefered Esox, however i must say they are an amazing fish to keep.
The problem with getting live feeders is i would have to st up a QT/gut load tank, and i dont really have the space, so i think ill just skip the gars, it just seems like it will be another tough fish to feed and i definitely have enough fish like that. Thanks for all the help guys!
You can pellet train them. The gar in the second link the op posted is a Florida gar,I have 2 one at 18"and one at15", both are pellet trained on massivore. Once a month I give then minnows. I trained mine by offering massivore one day than for the next 4 to 5 days they were only offered massivore on day 4 or 5 they got minnows or even frozen silver sides. I did this for about 4 months before they started eating the pellets. But in the end the pellet trained just fine.
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Hey thanks for the nice words, love how into the gars your getting. Once you get the 150 up post some pics, I'd love to see it. Blocking the walls of a tank do help so a fish doesn't spook and break its spine but in a 55 gallon at 9" it would be tough for it to build up the speed. In terms of the live feeding I feel you want them off of feeders. I had mine only eating pellets, tilapia, other fish fillet, and shrimp. Sure I would toss a big sucker minnow, gold shiner, perch, or Rudd in there every now and then just so the fish has to go back to its natural methods on feeding, I feel they get lazy if always hand fed that's why I move from one side of tank to other when feeding. What part of Canada are you in? If you were in Ontario I would have given you my gars when I sold them off if I knew
