Want to try gars

[Lepisosteus]

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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Agree, they are very easy to pellet train

 

[Lepisosteus]

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.

If you know their going into the 300 get 5. Do not put them in the 300 until they reach at least 12". Larger the better, in 300g at a small size if spooked they may crash into the walls. On another note I have a theory of putting gars in a large tank at a young age that if spooked they will not break their backs or even touch the walls as they have enough swim room to correct themselves and settle down. So that choice is up to you

 

[OhioMFK]

Nice Gar Zie!

 

[Lepisosteus]

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.

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

Oh one last thing, not trying to derail but the day before I took the tank down I took a 2:00 minute video of the gar tank, will upload video soon

 

[SawickiB]

Haha, looks like a i got a boat load of comments just now, no worries i dont mind. The new dimesions of the tank will be 7lx2wx2.5h actually, is this ok for gars? I do really want to have some gars still.

 

[OhioMFK]

Lep looking forward to seeing that video. Saw, the length should be fine however the width is the one thing i am unsure about. I would say you would be ok however i will leave it to someone with my knowledge to answer that.

 

[zie2695]

Nice gar

Thanks, when I got them they were very sick and Tom a lot of care to get back up to God health, but now they are really healthy

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[fish squish]

They'll eat frozen/pellets/whatever. Don't worry about having to "train them". I'd feed em live until they get some size maybe 8-12 inches then try pellets and frozen. They'll definitely eat freeze dried krill right off the bat.

 

[zie2695]

They'll eat frozen/pellets/whatever. Don't worry about having to "train them". I'd feed em live until they get some size maybe 8-12 inches then try pellets and frozen. They'll definitely eat freeze dried krill right off the bat.

Mine wouldn't take pellets for 4 months, just depends on the individual fish.I've herd of people lucky enough that there gar took pellets the first day, not so lucky with me.

Good luck with your gar. I'm moving mine out of there 125g to a 210g soon. There's also two bichirs in there with them.

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[reptilerescued]

Lepisosteus I'm 2 1/2 hours south of Canada in North East Pa. lived 3 miles from the NY border. Now I'm further south In Scranton Pa.
I used to go up to Ontario and upper state NY (Pulaski) to salmon fish. Also have a friend the owns a house state side right across from Bolt Castle, on the St Lawrence.
I don't get to travel any now that I have kids though.
I'm from Washington state originally . Lived in Birch Bay / Blaine Wa. about 1 mile from the Canadian Border. Used to go to BC all the time.

By all means Sawicki get some gars they are turning out to be a really cool fish and a very nice mix up from the Oscar/cichlids I kept the last 20 + years.

Zie you gars look good and healthy now, nice pair.


Rich