Change of plans...

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Hope those fish recover alright Jordan, that's a tough break.

I guess keeping any fish together involves some risk. I know I'm taking a chance with the cichlids I've got and so far I've had no trouble (helps that they are peaceful species). Good luck re-homing the pacu, I know finding a home for such a large fish can be tough.
 
Thanks good words guys. I think the gar will all survive, but i have no idea what handicaps or deformities this may bring. My FL/Spotted is the only one who is actually missing some of his jaw (upper/lower). The Trop and another FL/Spotted difinitely have some broken jaw bones, but i feel they will make a decent recover with minor deformities (i hope).

As for the Pacu...i have a new home lined up for her this Saturday morning. I know most of you could care a less about the Pacu, but when i take responsibility for any animal, i make sure they are taken care of.
 
that sucks to hear about the gars jordan.
 
demjor19;2093244; said:
As for the Pacu...i have a new home lined up for her this Saturday morning. I know most of you could care a less about the Pacu, but when i take responsibility for any animal, i make sure they are taken care of.
Click to expand...

Agree 100% with this. And maybe I'm in the minority but I actually like pacu...if I ever 1, get this outdoor pond off the ground and 2, decide to break the bank and heat it over the winter I might take in a few big homeless pacu (though if I keep gar in it I suppose not).

Are the gar willing/able to eat? If so I'd think they're recover reasonably well. If they were wild gar who needed to "hunt" then they might have trouble but in a tank setting hopefully they'll do OK.
 
CTU2fan;2093434; said:
Agree 100% with this. And maybe I'm in the minority but I actually like pacu...if I ever 1, get this outdoor pond off the ground and 2, decide to break the bank and heat it over the winter I might take in a few big homeless pacu (though if I keep gar in it I suppose not).

Are the gar willing/able to eat? If so I'd think they're recover reasonably well. If they were wild gar who needed to "hunt" then they might have trouble but in a tank setting hopefully they'll do OK.
Click to expand...

I really like the Pacu we have and would love to keep her, but it obviously wont work at this time. With the place we are sending her we may even have the option of readopting her in the future...after we set up another large tank. They really are a cool personable fish!

I have not offered any of the injured Gar food yet. I would like for some of the bone structure to set before i have them feeding again (to hopefully avoid furthur distortion and injury of their jaws). They all have enough fat reserve to afford a few meals. ;) I have Kara (my g/f) working on some aftermath photos. I'll try to have those up today.
 
demjor19;2093489; said:
I really like the Pacu we have and would love to keep her, but it obviously wont work at this time. With the place we are sending her we may even have the option of readopting her in the future...after we set up another large tank. They really are a cool personable fish!

I have not offered any of the injured Gar food yet. I would like for some of the bone structure to set before i have them feeding again (to hopefully avoid furthur distortion and injury of their jaws). They all have enough fat reserve to afford a few meals. ;) I have Kara (my g/f) working on some aftermath photos. I'll try to have those up today.
Click to expand...

gars survive with broken jaws in the wild all the time (many don't make it, but we often find them with partial jaws...have seen plenty this year), so hopefully your gars will recover just the same. they obviously won't be as aesthetically pleasing as they may have been before, but they should at least be able to function. that and one can easily figure that gars don't necessarily need their long range of jaw-strike in captivity that they absolutely need to survive in the wild (don't really need to aggressively 'hunt' inanimate chunks of food).

glad you were able to find a new place for the pacu. while you are considering these new developments, you may also want to revisit the issue of keeping cichlids with the gars too. this is generally not an advised combination, but you never know--
--solomon
 
This was an unfortunate situation which seems to be able to have a happy ending...We have never advised people to keep pacu with their gar, but we have said it worked for us....and that has ended. The shortnose got no damage since he is currently in a "hospital tank" while we continue working on his feeding issues. I have seen one of the Floridas continue eating even with a partially broken bottom jaw. It was difficult to get photos, so many are blurry but give you a general idea of wahts going on...Like Jordan said, our biggest Florida got it the worst and I think he will have the hardest recovery, while the rest I feel we were very lucky.

DSCN9402.jpg

^This piece eventually fell off completely. this is the biggest gar.

DSCN9421.jpg

^Here he is just this morning....

DSCN9424.jpg

^Both other Florida's have the same injuries.

DSCN9428.jpg

^I couldn't get a good shot of the trop, but he is similar to the other florida's with part of his jaw deformed.
 
xander13;2093817; said:
ouch. very sad to see em this way, hope everything works out.
Click to expand...

I know. It makes me sick to see them this way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom