3inch florida gar on bloodworms

[The Bass Hole]

I have been desperately trying for about the past month maybe more to get my gar to eat foods that aren't live.
I have tried:
-prawn (frozen)
-cichlid gold floating pellets
-shrimp (freeze dried)
-mysis shrimp(frozen)
I refuse to feed live any longer because i had a big scare with my baby jardini, he got a cloud in his eye and i thought that this was incurable (i eventually cured it with tons of erithromiacine(pardon the spelling)). That stuff is expensive and i dont want to go through that again
Prior to this conversion, i have converted two cichla, a jardini, a silver arowana and a ctenepoma. But no matter how hard i tried i couldnt convert the gar.
My ctenepoma is very small i felt that it was never getting a suitible meal with the prawn and shrimp and pellet staple because they are too large for him, so i took home some blood worms from my LFS to feed the ctenepoma and i couldnt believe my luck! The gar started to eat them!!!!!!
I was about to bring the gar back to my lfs prior to this beccause i felt as though i couldnt care for him properly, these doubts are now gone and i am estatic.

So i was mainly just wondering if it is common for such a small gar to be converted off of live foods to bloodworms?
Thank you kindly, james

 

[garobsessed15]

eventually he'll get courious and eat it, the same thing happened to me except i starved him a little because i couldnt go out to get him feeders lol. just give it time

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

at 3" abso-freakin-lutly do not with hold food just because you dont want to give feeders. you will end up with a severly stunted gar. if it hasnt been fed in a month it already is stunted more than likly. your just gonna keep making it worse.

gar should have food 24/7 untill 12" or so. the first few months determine the overall health of the gar and max size from my understanding. give ur gar some food..........

edit saw you got it to eat some food. grats........
though you where correct in your beliefs that you cant care for the gar properly.

 

[E_americanus]

agree with the above post - it's not just literally stunting the fish, but a lot of other early-life developmental issues that will compromise the gars health presently and if it survives later down the line.

a 3" FLG should definitely be fed feeders if it is taking nothing else. gars are much more resistant to parasites and other issues associated with feeders than other fishes. i would maintain a small group of feeders (guppies or rosy red minnows) in the gar tank so it can eat as it chooses for at least a month or two. once the fish reaches around 7-8" you can experiment with offering non-live, but IMO live has proven to be the best food with captive (pet) gars in early life.

best of luck, and keep us posted--
--solomon

 

[mafrockz]

I wouldn't see any reason why they wouldn't convert to frozen in the wild they catch alligator gar on dead fish,plus I believe gar can smell I haven't kept one in years,but the smell and the movement of the blood worms even thought they are dead don't just sink like krill.

 

[Sidrock]

I have been desperately trying for about the past month maybe more to get my gar to eat foods that aren't live.
I have tried:
-prawn (frozen)
-cichlid gold floating pellets
-shrimp (freeze dried)
-mysis shrimp(frozen)
I refuse to feed live any longer because i had a big scare with my baby jardini, he got a cloud in his eye and i thought that this was incurable (i eventually cured it with tons of erithromiacine(pardon the spelling)). That stuff is expensive and i dont want to go through that again
Prior to this conversion, i have converted two cichla, a jardini, a silver arowana and a ctenepoma. But no matter how hard i tried i couldnt convert the gar.
My ctenepoma is very small i felt that it was never getting a suitible meal with the prawn and shrimp and pellet staple because they are too large for him, so i took home some blood worms from my LFS to feed the ctenepoma and i couldnt believe my luck! The gar started to eat them!!!!!!
I was about to bring the gar back to my lfs prior to this beccause i felt as though i couldnt care for him properly, these doubts are now gone and i am estatic.

So i was mainly just wondering if it is common for such a small gar to be converted off of live foods to bloodworms?
Thank you kindly, james

I don't know what's the common classification, but aren't (live) Blood Worm also in the "Live Food" category (as opposed to freeze dried blood worm)?

The experts have already given their advice. I am just jotting down my experience:

This is the regime I followed for my 2 FL Gars and 2 Gator Gars:

4"-6": Feeders + Blood worm

6"-8": Jumbo Krill (fresh) + Feeders + Blood worm

8"- current (~16") : Jumbo Krill + Shrimp + Silver Sides etc.

I hope to eventually move them to "Prepared Foods" (pellets).. but I don't have the heart to starve my fish even when it's for "their own good"

-Sid

 

[E_americanus]

I wouldn't see any reason why they wouldn't convert to frozen in the wild they catch alligator gar on dead fish,plus I believe gar can smell I haven't kept one in years,but the smell and the movement of the blood worms even thought they are dead don't just sink like krill.

aside from the massive run-on, i can't really follow much of this logic. gars in the wild primarily eat live prey, gator gars will scavenge, but that would be larger individuals.

you can't always make comparisons to wild fish as captivity is very different in some key issues like feeding, water quality, prey availability, behavior...the list goes on.

feed a small young gar live food to get it started - they will be easier to convert when they are more "stable" size like 7-8". Lepisosteus gars also tend to be a bit harder to convert at very small sizes compared to Atractosteus gars, which are usually garbage disposals--
--solomon

 

[Wiggles92]

Listen to Solomon (E_americanus) on this one. He's raised a ton of gars and knows what does and doesn't work for keeping them well-fed and happy.

On a personal note, I didn't try to convert one of my previous longnose gars to foods other than feeders until it was about 10" long and putting on some weight. Luckily for me, no starvation was required, and it took a piece of shrimp on the first try.

 

[E_americanus]

Listen to Solomon (E_americanus) on this one. He's raised a ton of gars and knows what does and doesn't work for keeping them well-fed and happy.

On a personal note, I didn't try to convert one of my previous longnose gars to foods other than feeders until it was about 10" long and putting on some weight. Luckily for me, no starvation was required, and it took a piece of shrimp on the first try.

always great when that works out with LNG's! ...they have probably been my most challenging species for conversion over the years (compared to other gars), but i know Richard has had good luck with them.

again, all early stage YOY are best fed live up until 7-8"...there are always exceptions, but in terms of captive pet gars, this is a safe bet in terms of methodology. best of luck--
--solomon

 

[Wiggles92]

always great when that works out with LNG's! ...they have probably been my most challenging species for conversion over the years (compared to other gars), but i know Richard has had good luck with them.

I was pretty surprised when it worked the first try, but I'm not complaining; feeders were getting expensive. That particular longnose gar now belongs to a certain gar hoarder (*cough* Michael [Madding] *cough*) who has informed me that it eats pretty much any food that he gives it.

I think that it might have been all in the technique: I always hand fed it the pieces of shrimp, fish, or occasionally beefheart; I never just tossed the food in the aquarium.