Another Gar heartache experience.

[screaminleeman]

I can seem to do no right all of a sudden with new Gars. I have discussed losing my shortnose and nine of my ten baby longnose Gar that I purchased from TFD this April. Well I actually wound up doing even worse with the last surviving LNG baby!

As stated in another thread, all of my losses were due to either Predation or to jumping through the netting over my experimental outdoor built in deck pond. I was desperate and put the last survivor ~ 3" - 4" in a 20G long to grow it out some and increase its chance of survival.

Yesterday I went to feed the little fella and found that it is now sporting a broken back. The thing is at like a 15 degree angle. I am not sure what to do and am in need of advice! It still has a tremendous appetite and is eating and swimming well even with its broken back. It is now in the 6" - 7" range.

It is still aggressively eating both Pellet and fish chunk right from my hand. It does not appear to be suffering, but perhaps that is just wishful thinking on my part. Can the Gar be kept in this condition and live a somewhat decent life, or is it cruel and inhumane to NOT cull it?

 

[E_americanus]

I can seem to do no right all of a sudden with new Gars. I have discussed losing my shortnose and nine of my ten baby longnose Gar that I purchased from TFD this April. Well I actually wound up doing even worse with the last surviving LNG baby!

As stated in another thread, all of my losses were due to either Predation or to jumping through the netting over my experimental outdoor built in deck pond. I was desperate and put the last survivor ~ 3" - 4" in a 20G long to grow it out some and increase its chance of survival.

Yesterday I went to feed the little fella and found that it is now sporting a broken back. The thing is at like a 15 degree angle. I am not sure what to do and am in need of advice! It still has a tremendous appetite and is eating and swimming well even with its broken back. It is now in the 6" - 7" range.

It is still aggressively eating both Pellet and fish chunk right from my hand. It does not appear to be suffering, but perhaps that is just wishful thinking on my part. Can the Gar be kept in this condition and live a somewhat decent life, or is it cruel and inhumane to NOT cull it?

sorry to hear about your gar, i know that is something very frustrating and saddening as we all have to deal with this issue with these fishes at some point.

my quick advice to you would be to keep feeding it and observe it carefully over the next several days. give it a week or so of steady diet, as much as he will eat, and increase the temperature to about 80F. make sure the water quality is top notch, and increase water change frequency if you have to. let's see how he is doing in a week as this will indicate whether or not he may bounce back (at very young stages gars seem to be more resilient with this sort of injury) --
--solomon

 

[screaminleeman]

sorry to hear about your gar, i know that is something very frustrating and saddening as we all have to deal with this issue with these fishes at some point.

my quick advice to you would be to keep feeding it and observe it carefully over the next several days. give it a week or so of steady diet, as much as he will eat, and increase the temperature to about 80F. make sure the water quality is top notch, and increase water change frequency if you have to. let's see how he is doing in a week as this will indicate whether or not he may bounce back (at very young stages gars seem to be more resilient with this sort of injury) --
--solomon

Awsome Solomon! This has given me hope.

Sorry to pester you about small details, but I would like to avoid stressing the little one as much as possible. The 20G long growout that He/ She is in is currently in is unheated, and is in my basement clubroom which has a temperature range in the upper 60's to 70 (F). I do have a 55 growout that has been fully cycled, heated to 81 (F) and planted for around 6 months. It is currently hosting live bearers (3 Mollies & 2 Sword tails), a 7" EBJD (my Avatar), and 3 albino Senegal Bichirs ~ 6" each (that could be moved if necessary. Would it be better to move it to the bigger tank now or just start to slowly raise the temperature in the 20G long around 12 degrees (F).

Eitherway, I'll up my W/C schedule on the tank from 50% weekly to 50% twice per week.

 

[E_americanus]

i would keep the gar in the same (current) tank. just put a heater in the tank and set it at 80F (the temp will rise slowly enough). keep us posted, and if you can post a pic that will help with the prognosis--
--solomon

Awsome Solomon! This has given me hope.

Sorry to pester you about small details, but I would like to avoid stressing the little one as much as possible. The 20G long growout that He/ She is in is currently in is unheated, and is in my basement clubroom which has a temperature range in the upper 60's to 70 (F). I do have a 55 growout that has been fully cycled, heated to 81 (F) and planted for around 6 months. It is currently hosting live bearers (3 Mollies & 2 Sword tails), a 7" EBJD (my Avatar), and 3 albino Senegal Bichirs ~ 6" each (that could be moved if necessary. Would it be better to move it to the bigger tank now or just start to slowly raise the temperature in the 20G long around 12 degrees (F).

Eitherway, I'll up my W/C schedule on the tank from 50% weekly to 50% twice per week.

 

[screaminleeman]

I have tried to get photos of the broken back Gar, but the tank sits a grand total of around 6" off the floor and is not easy at all.

The little LNG is still eating fantastic and showing no signs of obvoius pain. It is still swimming well and using the entire 20 gallon long top to bottom.

 

[xander]

although that does seem like a badly broken back, your description is that of a recovering gar. so, congrats that you managed to keep it alive! good luck with it in future

 

[SkySouza]

how do you think an injury like this could have happened? slamming into the tank glass?

 

[lungfishlover]

how do you think an injury like this could have happened? slamming into the tank glass?

i too would like to know how this happens? i would love to own a gar but i have to admit this puts me off owning one - is it common and what can be done to prevent this from happening?

btw good luck in keeping this fella alive and well - got my fingers crossed for you

 

[aidenb]

i too would like to know how this happens? i would love to own a gar but i have to admit this puts me off owning one - is it common and what can be done to prevent this from happening?

btw good luck in keeping this fella alive and well - got my fingers crossed for you

Usually this occurs when a tank is too narrow for the gar (this will vary by species) and when something startles the gar it slams into the side. But it can happen in proper sized tanks as well.
Please note: I am not saying a 20 will hold a gar, especially a LN for life but at its current size it should have been fine.

@screaminleeman Your gar looks too be doing well after its injury, My emperor snakehead looked like that for a while and then one day his back was suddenly back to normal, but i'm not sure whether it broke its back or not as I did not see it happen

 

[screaminleeman]

I can not swear as to exactly how the gar got into this condition. I feed it at this young age at least once every day and sometimes twice. The lights are off in all of my tanks overnight and the extreme vast majority of the day. I am certain that it occurred in darkness, which is usually considered less stressful!

I do have a theory though. In the 1st, 2nd and 4th picture you can see the power-head that was recently installed in the tank within the last month or so. It is a ZooMed Powersweep 214 (up to 30 gallon aquarium) with an automatic rotating power-head. Last night when I snapped these shots, I noticed that the thing was not rotating back and forth. A nudge from my finger set the thing back in motion.

I suppose that it is possible that the gar got into a "tussle" with the power head and violently reacted injuring itself in the process.