Florida Gar Growth Questions

[ospy]

I had a florida gar back in the eighties for a couple years and I can't remember incredible growth from him. I was just reading something a guy said "If you feed him daily and notice a fullness to his stomach each day he will attain 12" within 3 months." and it made me wonder???
I just bought another Florida gar about 2 months ago. I feed him well and often, though, I don't feed him till he's bloated. I usually give him about 3 large freeze dried krill pieces a day at two different times of the day. He's about 12 -13 " long now so how long should he be in say....6 months? If I understand this guy correctly, wouldn't he be at least two feet long in six months? Tarponguy, if I missunderstood you please feel free to explain. You've had these gars longer than me (and more of them). Am I underfeeding him? Or, am I feeding him just right to control growth? Somebody's bound to ask so the answer is "180 gallon tank". Oh, and the answer to the next question is "He's in with an arowana 14" and two Mono Sebae's" So, there is plenty of tank for him for now. By the way, with florida gar, should I look forward to needing to upgrade my tank size in the future? Or will he be okay there for life? Is that enough questions for you to chew on? Thank you. Tarponguy, chime in. I need your experience here. Thank you

 

[ospy]

Somebody with knowledge, please reply

 

[E_americanus]

all gars experience relatively rapid growth early in life and then taper off to some extent. this varies with the species, with the gator gar growing much larger initially than the other 6 species.

your Florida gar will not be 2' long at the end of 6 months by any means. even in the wild they don't reach this size within their first year.

your feeding schedule is good for maintaining regular growth, provided the gar is getting all the food you put into the tank originally intended for the gar. the tank for that fish will suffice for quite a long time, probably at least a couple years. these fish have a wild max (remember this is essentially a record length) of 52", but most in the wild don't reach anywhere near that, and in captivity will not do so either, this is just a simple fact of most fishes in the aquarium. this doesn't mean, however, they shouldnt be given plenty of space

that being said, since your gar is already 12-13", he's most likely reached the 'plateau' for Florida gars and will experience relatively slow (compared to his initial growth to 8-9") steady growth for the next year or so. i wouldnt expect the fish to be much larger than 16-18" a year from now (and this is with relatively optimal conditions).

keep up your feeding schedule and the gar will be healthy and grow steadily. hopefully that helps with your questions, if i missed anything let me know, and good luck with the fish--
--solomon

 

[Azriel]

Hey there. I a new owner of a lovely gar as well. He is currently 4" long (bought yesterday). His tankmates are 2 clown knifefish. I threw in about 15 feeders (about 1" in length) this morning (its now 3 am) and there are about 8 left. I personally saw his eat one (freaked the heck out of my friend haha).

So my question is how long was your gar two months ago? According to reports it seems that gars grow about an inch every month. Is this true? Also they are all currently living in a 15g tank (I bought the gar without even knowing wat fish it was ) but I will be getting a 100g tank in a couple of weeks so will transfer my fishes to that tank asap.

 

[demjor19]

Hey there. I a new owner of a lovely gar as well. He is currently 4" long (bought yesterday). His tankmates are 2 clown knifefish. I threw in about 15 feeders (about 1" in length) this morning (its now 3 am) and there are about 8 left. I personally saw his eat one (freaked the heck out of my friend haha).

So my question is how long was your gar two months ago? According to reports it seems that gars grow about an inch every month. Is this true? Also they are all currently living in a 15g tank (I bought the gar without even knowing wat fish it was ) but I will be getting a 100g tank in a couple of weeks so will transfer my fishes to that tank asap.

you should have had that 100 gal. like yesterday! none of those fish should be in a 15. but at least you are getting a larger tank.

with my florida ive noticed 1-2 inches of growth each month for the first year. he is currently a few months into his second year he is still growing at a rate of 1 inch per month and he is around 17" right now. he eats anything from feeders to market shrimp to night crawlers and anything else i throw in.

 

[Polypterus]

I will be covering this elsewhere on a different forum as soon as I can..

But a 4 inch gar should not be put into a 100 gallon tank. You are doing just fine keeping it in the 15 gallon for now. Move the fish up gradually to larger quarters as it grows for best results.

As said I'll get to your specific questions shortly and help clear up these issues.

Polypterus AKA:Brooklamprey

 

[Azriel]

Thanks for the reply guys. Wow 1 - 2" per month eh? Thats awesome. (I love big pets hehe.)

I initially just threw in all the feeders that I bought. I had 16 in the tank with them yesterday and 2-3 died (cant be sure ... I have some [about 10] ghost shrimp in there with them ... excellent cleaners). Now after about 25 hours there are 3 left and the gar looks quite fat . Is it ok to throw in so many feeders? Or should I feed them slowly? Like 2 in the morning and 5 at night or something like that?

Do check out pics of my tank and my gar.