o and these were some options that i was considering for tankmates:
northa american (pumpkinseed)sunfish, channell cat, or maybe a south american set up with polypterus delhezi & senegalus, arowana, peacock bass i dunno what do ya'll think?
Polypterus make good tank mates for gar. I would think you could do sunfish (i have that combo right now, although they're all still very young). Peacock bass aren't advised, since they are very aggressive eaters, and most likely will out compete the gar for food. I'm not sure about channel cats. You just need a very large tank for them, since they can get up to 3 or more feet, and get very fat.