Are Gars cold water fish? Some questions

[Miguel]

As said I'm new to Gars ( thank God there are still novelties for me in the hobby ). Thinking about them being north american it occurred to me that maintaining them at tropical temperatures ( 25º/27º Celsius - don't know Fahrenheits ) could be too warm...

is that so? And if it is, what is their idela mantenanve temp?

and their water params? Sofgt water , low Ph as I imagine, or am i tottally wrong on this?

Thank You
M

 

[ewurm]

Gar are definitely cold water fish. I would not use a heater. I would go with moderate hardness.

 

[E_americanus]

gars are not cold water fish by the accepted terminology (trout are coldwater fish, gars are considered warmwater fishes).

maintaining gars at a tropical temp range (78-82) will be just fine, and it will do them no harm. they are also fine at standard room temp, usually around 70F. they can tolerate temps much lower than that, but it's not advised to go too far below 60F, especially since it can get costly to maintain an aquarium at a cooler temp anyway.

they do well at a neutral to slightly higher pH, although can tolerate a wide range. hope that helps!--
--solomon

ps-- just for reference, i maintain all my gars with other tropical fishes, so the temp in the tank is about 80-82F, and i like to keep the pH a little on the high side, which is around 7.6-8.0.