Atractosteus spatula experiment

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Jakob

Jakob

Piranha
MFK Member
Feb 22, 2008
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Iceland
I've been doing some research on gator gars for the past few days, and have done much more research in the past.
As an experienced fishkeeper I know that Alligator gars can reach 10' in the wild, and that they can reach 4-5' in home aquaria.
I actually have read more than one thread with people talking about having an alligator gar that is several years old, and only about 3' long.

Has anyone here tried to arrange for them to grow smaller, feeding them less amount and less frequently (without starving them).
I'm thinking about making this experiment happen, as I have a gator gar arriving next friday.

He will be housed in a 125g to begin with, I have a few feeders for him to start with, to relief his stress after a long flight.
After a couple days I will break him to shrimps and other frozen goods like bloodworms and beefheart.
A couple weeks after that I will try pellets, I'm stubborn with my fish accepting pellets, and expect him to take them after a few days, when he gets hungry.
Feeding will be kept to a bare minimum at all times.

After that he will be placed in a 500g indoor pond, and I'm gonna try to keep him there for as long as possible. He can live there happily until he is 3'+.
If all hell breaks loose, and he won't stop growing, then the back-up plan is to dump him in my buddies' 8.000g outdoor pond (heated).

Any notes and comments on this experiment are happily accepted.
 
That, to me, sounds like trying to force a fish to become stunted. And I would advise against it. As these fish are meant to be one of the apex predators in their naturally occurring habitats, and meant to grow to sizes much larger than 40", I would say this gar would be way outside of its full potential and possible health issues will probably arise.
 
That's just cruel, man. If you don't have the capacity to care for a fish, just don't get it, simple as that.
 
I hate to sound like a dbag when I say this but I'll say it anyway. The human equivalent of what you just said is.. " Hmm, I wonder if I feed my kid the bare minimum and don't give him/her the space they need, whether they'l stay tiny or reach their full potential.."

It's not much of a experiment rather than common sense. Any living animal requires sustenance for the growth hormone to have an effect. Your experiment is basically " how much can you stunt a gator gar.."


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xApostle said:
I hate to sound like a dbag when I say this but I'll say it anyway. The human equivalent of what you just said is.. " Hmm, I wonder if I feed my kid the bare minimum and don't give him/her the space they need, whether they'l stay tiny or reach their full potential.."

It's not much of a experiment rather than common sense. Any living animal requires sustenance for the growth hormone to have an effect. Your experiment is basically " how much can you stunt a gator gar.."


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Don't feel bad, you aren't a d-bag for stating the obvious of this.
 
This is almost as bad as the kid who thinks it's OK to snag goldfish just because they are "tough" fish.
There is power feeding, and there's feedling a lot, and then there's a more natural diet - where the fish has a few days on, a few days off - just as in nature, but I completely agree with the kid analogy.
If we all fed our kids the bare minimum, we could try to start a generation of dwarves.

Get a poster of an Alligator Gar and put it on the wall next to your tank. Cheaper, and you don't have to feed it a thing, and best of all - if you want a small one - get a picture of a small one. :) .
 
Comparing people to alligator gar is ridiculous, don't roast him for being curious, even if he is ethically wrong.

Don't purposely stunt your gar, I don't see why underfeeding wouldn't result to stunting, so your experiment is pointless.
 
cnel124 said:
Comparing people to alligator gar is ridiculous, don't roast him for being curious, even if he is ethically wrong.

Don't purposely stunt your gar, I don't see why underfeeding wouldn't result to stunting, so your experiment is pointless.
Click to expand...


That was hardly "roasting", i was simply pointing it out and no, the comparison is not ridiculous. You're valuing the life of one living thing as more than that of another. That's the ridiculous part lol. I simply stated the easiest way of showcasing my point. Curiosity is also ok of course, if you do the research on the topic you are curious about.
 
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