For those who ACTUALLY keep alligator gars...

[Oompa Loompa]

What do you consider to be a good starting point for a tank size as far as these fish. I'm looking for people who have experiences with adult alligator gars.
I'm not looking for "as big as you can" as an answer. Of course bigger is better - but what are people keeping these fish in as adults?

Take care,
Drew

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

As a starting point, any tank that's at least 2x wider and 4x longer than the gar should be borderline adequate. These are poorly flexible and can be clumsy around corners.

As for the adults, it varies. Adult sizes vary. IDK if my pair of 3-footers were adults. Grew them from 1.5' over 3-4 years. They were rescues from when we lived up north in Rochester, NY. We brought them with us to Naples, FL. They lived in many places, ponds and tanks, from 1500 gal to 30,000 gal.

The biggest I know of on MFK were the platinum ones of Vincent Wu, that got to 4' or longer. I think they were in a 4000 gal.

It is pretty pitiful for MFK as a community that there is no one I know of who keeps or kept a larger gator gar.

Unfortunately, Florida doesn't give anyone licenses to keep a gator gar, except a couple of the largest Public Aquaria.

Our guys back in the day:






This was just for a day during a rehoming in a 120 gal 5x1.5x2:

 

[HungDang]

Since alligator gar can take up to 11 years to sexually mature, how many people that ever buy a gator gar really keep them till they're fully mature?

 

[local hero]

I've been maintaining two different alligator gar (5' & 6') for over eleven years now in two different public settings. Each respective exhibit is over 18,000 gallons with 300-400 square feet of surface area and I would not go any smaller.