A question for those who keep their gar out doors?
- Thread starter jpcampbell123
- Start date
Gars breathe air. In a 100% freeze over, your Gar(s) die.
John,
Either your location is [inaccurate], or your question is very strange! Maryland is like a bazillion times colder in the winter than Georgia. I have a 100+ food diameter farm pond and it has not frozen over 100% of the surface since I moved there in 1979!
I was TOTALLY unaware that a deep freeze has ever occurred in the last few centuries in your area! I would say that with the exception of Tropical & Cuban gar species, you should have less than no fear homing a garin a Georgia pond.
Oops, I just realized that there is also a Baltic republic of Georgia. Sorry if that is your location, and I know nothing of your weather patterns. I would say no gar if your winters are anything like Russian winters!
John,
Either your location is [inaccurate], or your question is very strange! Maryland is like a bazillion times colder in the winter than Georgia. I have a 100+ food diameter farm pond and it has not frozen over 100% of the surface since I moved there in 1979!
I was TOTALLY unaware that a deep freeze has ever occurred in the last few centuries in your area! I would say that with the exception of Tropical & Cuban gar species, you should have less than no fear homing a garin a Georgia pond.
Oops, I just realized that there is also a Baltic republic of Georgia. Sorry if that is your location, and I know nothing of your weather patterns. I would say no gar if your winters are anything like Russian winters!
I have a 33 inch alligator gar and keep him outdoors in central Michigan until the end of September, then bring him indoors and keep him in a swimming pool in my basement. His summer coloration is beautiful.
gar can breath into the air, that keep them alive in low Oxygen water. If the water is high oxygen, they don't breath into the air. If the pond only get freeze a part on the water surface, the fish would be fine!
I just always wonder where do they go in the winter cuz I still see other fish being active here in the dirty south lol not in russia. the past two years we have had alot of ice storms.
My two longnose gars did just fine when their pond froze over for a few days.
Don't forget that water holds more oxygen when it's cold versus when it's warm. Gars only breath air to supplement what the oxygen they get by breathing with their gills rather than relying on just the air for oxygen although in captive aquariums they usually must rely on air for the majority of their oxygen.
Don't forget that water holds more oxygen when it's cold versus when it's warm. Gars only breath air to supplement what the oxygen they get by breathing with their gills rather than relying on just the air for oxygen although in captive aquariums they usually must rely on air for the majority of their oxygen.
this is actually a complex issue - it's been shown in SPGs (using them as a surrogate for other gar species as well) that at periods of low dissolved oxygen (such as in warmer water/warmer temps) they switch to nearly full atmospheric respiration as they actually lose some oxygen through their gills; therefore it is not supplemental but full atmospheric respiration at those conditions. gators and other gars would behave in the same manner.
in aquaria it's more an issue of the warmer temps and level of activity that have them surfacing for air; in winter there is a point where there is less O2 in the water (depending on where in the lake/pond/stream they are), but since the level of activity is so low they won't need to surface as much (or at all depending on how much O2 is in the water).--
--solomon
Interesting.
So gars are obligate air breathers when the water is warm and oxygen-depleted and facultative air breathers when the water is cold and at least somewhat oxygen-rich (or they are in state of reduced activity)?
yup. like i said, it's kind of complicated...also makes classifying them in terms of air-breathers difficult (have had to explain this to plenty of researchers too). technically they are considered facultative air-breathers, but in a practical sense, they are usually obligate air-breathers because in the warmer/higher activity conditions they are usually found, they are getting all/majority of their O2 from the air.
if the water is saturated with O2 then they don't usually need to gulp air, but this seldom occurs in warm water without some sort of O2 injection--
--solomon