florida gar with tankmates help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
also on the bright side if the fish is to big for them to eat they will generally leave them alone. they are peaceful for the most part but all depends on the fish. They do tend to get a little aunry during feeding time tho. i know mine do. Just keep an eye on them
 
jar2x said:
okay... i guess the senegal will be staying in his own tank. btw, i got him from a friend who couldnt take care of him anymore. there are endlicheri available at my lps but i have black sand and in read that the fish lose their contrast.

are spiny eels active? i never took care of one and i read that they are difficult to feed. so, i never really considered them. my gars are take pellets among other food. will the eels do the same? i dont think my wife would let me keep earthworms lol.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if thats ture i had bichir for awhile and the only thing that changed their contrast was stress ect... they will be "darker" on a darker substrate but as for tank-mates you can't get much better. a few people have also kept afro arrows, and austrailian lungfish w/ gar... but these are generally on the upper price scale for fish ( at least in the states)

Spiney eels are difficult to feed and rarely take pellets.. some do, but the majority ime do not. so I would say stear clear if you want species that are strict pellets eaters ect.

Spiney eels when young are quite reculsive but ime once acclimated and 12"+ with the larger species ( tire tracks and fire eels being the most common ones) they will come out and interact as much as any cichlid does w/out the aggression you see in most cichlids which for me was a big plus. I would def show your wife some videos on you-tube of these fish as imo the fire eel is one of the most spectacular fish out there. having nightcrawlers ect is a small inconvenienece. Tire tracks are more likely to take to pellets or peices of fish ( the same foods gar eat) but are not as colorful.. so may be something to do further research on. My Armatus TT ate small fish and almost anything frozen. He never took pellets but you tend to hear of them takeing them over other species. BUt they can be more forward... I have never seen any aggression towards anything to big to eat that leaves them alone so imo you'de have maybe a 5% chance of them not working. The main downside to spineys is they are extreamely conspecific aggressive. so unless you can house multiple 3-5 2'+ eels in a tank I would never keep more then 1 in a tank to keep the peace. Some people mix them and it works.. until the fish mature... then one fish "mysteriousely" jumps or is otherwise found dead. I've tried comming these species many times and have always found the aggression intense betwen them.. but never towards non-spineys. Sorry my other passion beside gar are spiney eels if you haven't picked up on it yet...:hearts:
 
been doing some research and looking around and i decided i will go for a TT. lucky enough i found one for sale. it comes out at around $50 about 8" in length and is currently being handfed anchovies. is this a good deal? its plump and around the same size as my FLGs. will the gar,'s growth rate exceed that of the TT? i checked and came up with conflicting results with regards to the TT's growth rate.
 
true tt's will get 24"+ depending on a few things... there are 2 main subspecies one maxing in the 18-24" range the other getting at max in captivity in the 48" range. so yes they will get as big as your gar which is a good thing being slender fish themselves. Favrus or patterned belly TT is the smaller of the 2, where Armatus get almost 2x that size. They can be challengeing to acclimate to captivity and are often stunted in the process or only live a year or 2 but have the capacity to live 20yrs+ imo as they don't seem to mature until 2-5yrs. There is alot about this subspecies of fish that isn't known to the pet trade.

idk how the prices in the philippines compare to the US but to me that price is on the high side. we can get them that size around 20$ ... But for a healthy, handfeeding fish imo its worth the asking price. or haggle it down abit if possible. At the end of the day my personal philosopy is if the animal is very healthy, great patterns ect and what I want in a fish i'll pay more.. or less. If you're happy with the price at the end of the day that is all that really matters. and at the end of the day we end up spending more on "houseing" them anyways.
 
i cant thank you enough for your help! i will do a bit more research about the eel but i will most likely be getting him by the end of the week. :)
 
I have 3 Gars (14"-18")...and their tank mates are a 10" Oscar & a 12" Giant Gourami. Of course the Gar "tank mates" are way too large for the Gar's to eat.:)
 
I have a 15 inch FG. It snapped and caught my 4 inch indo tiger. Swam around with it in the jaws. I had to hit it with my feeding tongs twice before he let it go. The small indo survived the attack and is now at friends grow out tank.
Here is list of all other tank mates.no issues so far, had gar for 1 month .:
3 rays all 12-13 inch
17, 15, 11, and 7 inch indo tiger
12, 8 inch thinbar tiger
8.5 inch ocellarius p bass
7 inch orino p bass
Two 8 inch archer fish
7, 7 and 10 inch Tinfoil

Sent from my GT-I9300 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
damn... i think the lady selling the TT is trying to scam me.. she just added $10 saying that its rarer because its a "spiny eel". she even has her fire eels labeled as TTs. just goes to show that she is just trying to make a quick buck. might not be getting a TT for awhile. and definitely not going back to her petshop. i will see if my usual petshop can order a TT for me. until then, i guess my tank will have to be a little bare.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom