Florida Gar Tankmates

[city_of_evil6661]

it can work if you the space.

 

[aqualife08]

Cool and what type of fish do everyone in here have with their Fl Gars?

 

[city_of_evil6661]

read my signature.

 

[xander]

Cool and what type of fish do everyone in here have with their Fl Gars?

i have 3 spotted gars in with an african arowana and 2 endlicheri bichirs. they have been okay with a green arowana and a cuban gar

cats generally arent good with gars, unless you have a very large enclosure and yr gars are big, which i would doubt. cichlids arent best buddies either..far from it actually, there are quite a good bit of threads on gar tankmates at the moment, check it out yrself!

 

[CTU2fan]

Well, I keep mine with a senegal poly, a uaru and chocolate cichlid, and some convicts. The cons aren't permanent, and it they cause any trouble I can move them out. The chocolate and uaru are very laid-back cichlids so they seem to work just fine, but I definitely would avoid more aggressive cichlids and more aggressive-feeding cichlids (like oscars). I think dats would work better than big cichlids. Also gars tend to equate silver fish to food so it's best to avoid them, though I do hear of gars kept with pacu and arowana so it can work.

As for the knives...big ones like clown knives are probably a bad idea. I'm considering trying a black ghost knife so if anyone has any experience with that combo I'd love to hear about it. Cats seem to be a poor choice as they seem to be either too big/greedy/aggressive for the gars or too small for them. I was considering a lima shovelnose as the sizes seemed comparable but not sure if that's been done successfully by anyone.

 

[xander]

Well, I keep mine with a senegal poly, a uaru and chocolate cichlid, and some convicts. The cons aren't permanent, and it they cause any trouble I can move them out. The chocolate and uaru are very laid-back cichlids so they seem to work just fine, but I definitely would avoid more aggressive cichlids and more aggressive-feeding cichlids (like oscars). I think dats would work better than big cichlids. Also gars tend to equate silver fish to food so it's best to avoid them, though I do hear of gars kept with pacu and arowana so it can work.

As for the knives...big ones like clown knives are probably a bad idea. I'm considering trying a black ghost knife so if anyone has any experience with that combo I'd love to hear about it. Cats seem to be a poor choice as they seem to be either too big/greedy/aggressive for the gars or too small for them. I was considering a lima shovelnose as the sizes seemed comparable but not sure if that's been done successfully by anyone.

i had one with 2 of my spotted gars(7-9inch at the time), never found out which one ate it.

 

[CTU2fan]

Oops I was going to try and get a big one, 12"+, but if your gars ate one at that size I'm not even sure a big ghost would be safe. Oh well...more bichirs

 

[city_of_evil6661]

a BGK can work. if its to big to fit in the gar mouth. but BGK are slow growers and the gar would most likely out grow it quick. but you could always get a growout tank for a BGK if you cant find one big enough.

 

[dbcb314]

Ok thanks and how about any type of catfish? I know they get pretty big very fast but i heard a shovel nose cat can do great with these guys? Is this true?

you coudl try a lima of appropriate size, not a tiger in that tank

 

[gangster]

I had a 9'' tiger oscar and a 7'' albino oscar in my tank as well as three pacu's and all of them picked on the gar...so know the florida gar is hangin w/ few others(see sig.) but when he doesnt have any thing to eat he picks them off. I cant get him off feeders and I dont wanna starve him.