three main points:
1- simonL is correct in this case, and there is nothing wrong with quoting sources along the likes of Suttkus, and further references such as Nelson, Page & Burr, E O Wiley, and many others will confirm this. these are published sources and there is nothing wrong with referencing them to back up one's case.
furthermore, as indicated by earlier posts in this thread and those sources, saltwater environments are part of the gars' natural habitat. they may not always be found in there, and some are more tolerant or at least more commonly found in brackish/marine than others, but this doesn't not make the habitat unnatural.
he was asking for experiences and info on this, and had reason/sources to back up why it could work. i have seen this in photos promoting the Aquarium of the Americas in Louisiana, although i believe they lost a lot of fish in the hurricane. either way, they had an awesome photo or two of an alligator gar kept with tarpon, sharks, rays, etc in a big saltwater tank. personally, i've always wanted to try that.
secondly, i've observed longnose gars in the field in saltwater myself. around the gulf coast they are often found in the pure saltwater side, and gators are well known to do so too. cubans have also been documented doing this many times, and I believe spotteds have too.
2- i do appreciate people not speaking for me in just about all circumstances, especially online forums, period.
3- and finally, getting back to the main question at hand, here is my advice:
trying this out with a larger specimen is probably worth a shot and should work. the key would be to make the transition as easy as possible (so as not to risk stressing the fish), perhaps gradually increase the salinity in its own tank, and then just move it into your shark tank. if the water is barely even full brackish, then the fish should do just fine...moving on to full saltwater from brackish should be relatively easy, but again, you may want to transition it a bit to be safe.
the key here is that young gars are often much more sensitive to water quality/parameters, so it would be inadvisable to try this with YOY (young of the year) fishes, however a decent sized gator, or a sub-adult of the other species (those known to enter salt) should theoretically be ok.
Cubans are well documented in SW, but at this time they are just too rare and too expensive to experiment with (although i have them on a high crushed-coral content substrate, and they seem to do much better in that pH level than others...so they're already partway there in terms of eventual SW tolerance).
good luck if you try it, and by all means let us know how it turns out--
--solomon
i feel i have been more than patient w/ people on here. like anyone my buttons can be pushed from time to time and my words come across as harsh. i'm only human.
