Alligator Gar Literally Bursting From Overeating?
- Thread starter Wiggles92
- Start date
the same thing happened to one of my florida gar. it ate and ate and ate and it was almost twice the size of the other gars and one day it just died coz of over eating..i still think about how fast it grew and how thick it got..sorry for your loss
Something about all this seems wrong and something else is involved.. But I do have to say that I never just let Gators just keep eating for if you do that is exactly what they will do. They do not seem to get the concept of limits...
Sorry to hear that you lost one, too.
I honestly had no idea that alligator gars really don't know when to stop eating since I've never had this problem before and haven't read about it happening to other alligator gars, but that seems like that's what led to this particular alligator gars death based on the evidence:
- It was kept with another alligator gar that was slightly smaller than it was (about 1" shorter).
- There is no sharp decor in the aquarium at all (just a live Amazon sword plant and a sand substrate).
- The water parameters were great (no ammonia, no nitrites, very low nitrates).
- The rosy reds had been quarantined and were feeding on pureed gar "chum". I gave the two gars approximately four dozen rosy reds on top of the remaining half dozen that were in there from the previous feeding a couple of days prior.
- The hole was along the middle seam of its ventral scales and was about halfway between its pectoral fins and pelvic fins; it consisted of a slit that was ~0.25" long. It seemed to not be jagged enough or small enough to have been from a bite.
- It was being kept in a 29 gallon, and it was moved to a bare 10 gallon aquarium after I discovered the injury. The hospital aquarium was kept at 82 degrees and had 1 tbsp of salt dissolved in the water.
If you have any others ideas as to why this alligator gar died, or why all three alligator gars will not grow fast, I'm all ears (metaphorically, of course).
I'm not sure about just why the Gator died. First I've heard of something like this in any Gar species. On growth though I had a similar fish. One gator I have would not grow past about 8 inches and even became known as the Bonsai Gator for just not growing. It stayed at about 8 to 10 inches for about 2 years. Funny thing is then it exploded in growth and reached well over 24 inches in less than one year. I really have no idea why there was a delayed growth.
Interesting. Well, hopefully the remaining two alligator gars are just late bloomers and will grow fast at some point. The smallest one (~4") has barely grown at all since I got it and prefers pellets over feeders.
whole thread is just pointless conjecture and guess-work without pics...even though the fish died (and actually especially since) we should have some pics so we can better investigate the issue. secondly, i thought you had to get rid of all smaller gars???
at this point we may as well assume it was an alien that was going to burst out of it, but the little chest-burster couldn't make it completely through the ganoid belly--
at this point we may as well assume it was an alien that was going to burst out of it, but the little chest-burster couldn't make it completely through the ganoid belly--
I'll get it out of the freezer and take some pictures when I get the chance.
I have to get rid of anything that's not going in the pond. These alligator gars were meant for the pond but haven't been growing fast enough, so I may have to sell them, too.
