Alligator Gar Questions....

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Listen "Xander13" I've done my research BEFORE I got my gar and I'm very aware if the care and maintenance of it. I'm asking this for GENERAL Knowledge for EVERYONE!
And you "answering" my question w/a single sentence means only you didn't read my whole reason for writing this thread! Call me ignorant...
I'm sure people have and do take care of 5'+ gars.
I'm just trying to get information out there for EVERYONE w/the same interest to get together and start getting some stone hard info on their growth rate. Besides 1 or 2 peoples opinion we would have hundreds and it would be more reliable than "THEY GET HUUUUGEEE" NO SHIET! They get big!
Look @ the sticky above on Gars Forum, all of the people just show their pics and maybe tell the size... What about it's AGE?!!! Thats great they know how to measure but how old is it @ that size?! Thats how a "researcher" would find out the true "Growth Rate"
"How long" did it take to get to 5'? that's the question!
I'm not worried cause
Thats All, I'm not badmouthing anybody, we all seem to share a common thing and we should just help each other and not be a load of ~spooge~ like u seem to be towards me
 
LOL ok 1st. E_americanus Thanks, you have been a gentleman.
You "understood" what I was getting at. It's true it take a little work but if we are really aficionados, taking 5 min. once a month is not too much to ask. But I'll stop there.
Xander, ignore my last reply (the part that I called you Spooge) lol
I was not able to read the other post cause
 
i was typing. No hard feelings.
About me purchasing a hard to keep fish as a "newbie" w/gars...
I did do my research and I'm planning to take good care of my "steeler" (thats his name)
A 300gal. is in the works and a pond is next. (w/many questions to follow) ;)
 
well, for starters, i'll add in a lil behavioural pattern i've noticed w gators. they seem to have much more character and attitude compared to spotted gars. for example...
when i have larger gars kept with smaller spotted gars, the spotteds will imitate the larger gar. my 14" spotted has always been a top dweller, but after i added my 16" spotted, who liked to stay at the lower levels, the 14" started hanging out at the bottom too. but when i added the large cuban in, she's mostly at the top, and low-and-behold. both the 14" and 16" started hanging out w it at the top.

and where was my 11" gator while this was happening? well he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to any of them. and he even attacks both spotteds.

so is it just the gators with an attitude or all atractosteus gars? or are my spotteds just funny.
 
Well I was going to try to get back to this before it went stupid (All Gator gar threads do on here for some reason) sorry for the late reply.

As Solomon (E_americanus) stated some of us actually do keep extensive and detailed records of their fish. This information however is not exactly easy to convey in a forum format and the idea of writing a book on a forum is not very appealing. There are better mediums to use to disseminate and collect this information. Very soon a Lepisosteids hobbyist study yahoo group is going to come into existence where serious gar hobbyists can post and receive detailed data from the hobby and scientific perspective. In this format we can easily swap higher level PDF and Excel data. When this comes into existence I encourage you jdamian13 to join this.

Above this you would find that there is a great amount of variability from fish to fish so the law of averages applies. There is no hard and fast rule with a one size fits all outcome. The information expressed by Solomon and myself comes primarily from a synthesis of His data, my data, other aquarist data and technical research data. There is actually a good amount of information available to the hobbyist on these fish you just have to know who to ask and ask the right questions. Again an open forum is not really the place to go for detailed specific information. As you can likely already tell it is annoyingly frustrating to try to keep a discussion on these fish going in a correct and useful manner.

If you are interested jdamian13 I have some technical publications and journal articles regarding Growth rate and Length, weight, age relationships of Atractosteus spatula. If you would like these send me a PM with your E-mail and I'll send those out to you.

Good luck with your gator gar and keep in touch.


Richard
 
1- For how long? (period of time) Have you had yours? or had till getting rid off?

2- How big was it? or is? (size of gar)

3- What size of tank do you or did you have it in?


Any other related info would be much appreciated.

-Cheers![/QUOTE]

I've had mine for 7 years. He was only about 4-5 inches long (a lot smaller than yours).

He is around 34-36" now.

He is in a 540g with an African lungfish. They have been together a couple of times for extended periods. I put them outside in a pond ( 16x 8 foot) every summer.

I did have him in the 15k for a while but he started eating too many fish.

He eats mainly smelts, mackeral, trout, shrimp and salmon.

Here is a picture of him as a juvenile in a 225 with his buddy the lungfish and a similiar sized snakehead.

The tank is actually clean, sorry the glass was so dirty but its the only pics I could find. Both my rotators are completley seperated from the bone so I often rely on friends to help clean the fish tanks glass when they visit.

HPIM0015.JPG

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