alligator gar

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floridagar

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 18, 2010
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chicago
Just a few more Questions on the alligator gar, trust me i know they get big and i am prepared for that.

i read some of the sticky notes and was still confused on the main question i have.

Can alligator gars live with Florida gars without any problems of aggression?
 
There will always be aggression issues where gator gars are concerned.

With that being said it will also depend on the age/size of the gator gar in comparison to the florida gar. In my experience my larer gator gars are less aggressive then the juveniles, though this can also vary from gar to gar. For example two of mine around the 26" mark and roughly the same age are at two ends of the aggression spectrum. One will attack and steal food from my 3 footers as well as attacking the other gators for no apparent reason, while the other hardly defends itself against the other gars and would rather give up a piece of food than fight for it. With larger gars though there is the potential for more damage to be done. So for the best chance of this working you would need a large adult florida gar and a gator gar that is on the smaller size for an adult to avoid many of the issues. Even so you should be prepared to separate them if/when the gator starts acting up.
 
pharmaecopia;5114849; said:
There will always be aggression issues where gator gars are concerned.

With that being said it will also depend on the age/size of the gator gar in comparison to the florida gar. In my experience my larer gator gars are less aggressive then the juveniles, though this can also vary from gar to gar. For example two of mine around the 26" mark and roughly the same age are at two ends of the aggression spectrum. One will attack and steal food from my 3 footers as well as attacking the other gators for no apparent reason, while the other hardly defends itself against the other gars and would rather give up a piece of food than fight for it. With larger gars though there is the potential for more damage to be done. So for the best chance of this working you would need a large adult florida gar and a gator gar that is on the smaller size for an adult to avoid many of the issues. Even so you should be prepared to separate them if/when the gator starts acting up.
Click to expand...


thanks the two Florida gars i have now, One of them is around 10" and the older one is around 14". The gator gar im getting is only around 4-5" and i wasnt going to throw him in the same tank as the Florida gars yet. I have a 125 gallon set up with a few bigger fish than the alligator gar. for the most part the smaller of the Florida gar is more aggressive when it comes to them showing dominance. He will try and bite or just swim away as fast as possible, The biting issue is very minimal I've seen the smaller one bite the bigger one once and it wasn't bad at all in fact i think he missed, The other thing i have in mind that wasnt very clear to me is that i know alligator gar grow at a semi fast rate. But how long will a 125 gallon tank hold the gator gar for? reason for this is i have plans on upgrading soon to a DIY tank and im planning on making it close to 500 gallons. what im concerend about is what if i throw the alligator gar in the tank with the Florida gar and they do start to fight. that would lead to me having to separate the alligator into the smaller tank again. And then he will have to be suitable for that tank for a while till i can figure out a solution. otherwise i think i have it all under control.
 
floridagar;5115203; said:
thanks the two Florida gars i have now, One of them is around 10" and the older one is around 14". The gator gar im getting is only around 4-5" and i wasnt going to throw him in the same tank as the Florida gars yet. I have a 125 gallon set up with a few bigger fish than the alligator gar. for the most part the smaller of the Florida gar is more aggressive when it comes to them showing dominance. He will try and bite or just swim away as fast as possible, The biting issue is very minimal I've seen the smaller one bite the bigger one once and it wasn't bad at all in fact i think he missed, The other thing i have in mind that wasnt very clear to me is that i know alligator gar grow at a semi fast rate. But how long will a 125 gallon tank hold the gator gar for? reason for this is i have plans on upgrading soon to a DIY tank and im planning on making it close to 500 gallons. what im concerend about is what if i throw the alligator gar in the tank with the Florida gar and they do start to fight. that would lead to me having to separate the alligator into the smaller tank again. And then he will have to be suitable for that tank for a while till i can figure out a solution. otherwise i think i have it all under control.
Click to expand...

At the very max you would be looking at around 5-6 months. Likely closer to half, 3 months, is what you should be prepared for though. It'll be growing something close to an inch a week at it's current size provided you are raising it like suggested in the stickies. ie, constant access to food, in a smallish tank to allow it to catch food. Do this until roughly 10-12".

Depending on how you feed from this point on you would probably see a slower growth rate, though still fast growing though up to about 18-20" which is when they start to fill out. In regards to feeding, this would be based on normal feeding vs. power feeding. If power feeding you will see faster growth.

One more comment, in my experience gators tend to be a lot more aggressive when they are hungry.
 
pharmaecopia;5115242; said:
At the very max you would be looking at around 5-6 months. Likely closer to half, 3 months, is what you should be prepared for though. It'll be growing something close to an inch a week at it's current size provided you are raising it like suggested in the stickies. ie, constant access to food, in a smallish tank to allow it to catch food. Do this until roughly 10-12".

Depending on how you feed from this point on you would probably see a slower growth rate, though still fast growing though up to about 18-20" which is when they start to fill out. In regards to feeding, this would be based on normal feeding vs. power feeding. If power feeding you will see faster growth.

One more comment, in my experience gators tend to be a lot more aggressive when they are hungry.
Click to expand...


i appreciate the responses, nice to know i can get some help on here. Ill leave him in the 125 gallon till he grows to at least 10" then ill switch him over to give him a chance in there. If any aggression he will be out and stuck into the 125 till i build the new tank in a few months. Thanks for the input.
 
When Alligator Gars get big, they eat anything that they can swallow. So it may work out in the beginning but eventually the Gator Gar is going to start growing much faster than the Florida Gar and will eat the Florida Gar. I would not try to experimenting with that combination.
 
Gars really can't open their mouths all that wide, so they are kinda limited in what they can swallow. For example I have an 18" gator gar in the same pond as the 2 36" gar, with no problems as far as predation. A bigger worry is the gator just deciding to kill it's tankmates rather than eat them.
 
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