Usually the gar and aro combination works best if you get both at a young age and attempt to gauge their growth rates together so that neither one is ever more than a couple of inches larger than the other. This is how I've raised my black aro with a tank full of gars. I see only minimal fin nipping during feeding.
Gar and Cichlid in 275?
- Thread starter Loshmitchell101
- Start date
gar like to attack shiny fish, too.
i know catfish usually aren't a good combo, but I put my LSN in with my gars and bichirs as it hardly got any food in its other tank. If the cat isn't real big and isn't a voracious eater as most are, there shouldn't be a problem, but still not usually worth the risk
i know catfish usually aren't a good combo, but I put my LSN in with my gars and bichirs as it hardly got any food in its other tank. If the cat isn't real big and isn't a voracious eater as most are, there shouldn't be a problem, but still not usually worth the risk
Lepisosteus platyrhincus;4299621; said:
I am curious about the Gar/ catfish combination also. They are in combination in nature in every gar habitat as far as I am aware of. I have never had any challenges with the combo (other then my baby LNG < 4") eating all 10 baby black catfish that were in the growout tank (They were 0.5" - 0.75" range).
Is the combo dangerous for the Gar or only for the catfish?
both. catfish can outgrow the gar and cause issues, plus catfish's verocious eatting habbits can cause issues
As far as catfish are concerned, I have had spotted, florida, and shortnose gars with the following catfish with no problems:
14" albino channel cat (worked fine until the catfish bashed himself to death)
6" sun catfish (currently fine)
7" granulosus catfish (currently fine, will see how it works when he's larger)
Some catfish can work, other's maybe not. it probably depends on the aggressiveness and size of the catfish and gar in question. I think it helps that I added my catfish smaller and later than the gar, but not too small to be eaten.
I also have a 15" venezuelan pike cichlid, a 8-9" friedrichstalli cichlid, a 7" indo datnoid, and a 7" mayan cichlid in with the gars and they are no problem either. They all pretty much ignore the gars, and vice versa.
14" albino channel cat (worked fine until the catfish bashed himself to death)
6" sun catfish (currently fine)
7" granulosus catfish (currently fine, will see how it works when he's larger)
Some catfish can work, other's maybe not. it probably depends on the aggressiveness and size of the catfish and gar in question. I think it helps that I added my catfish smaller and later than the gar, but not too small to be eaten.
I also have a 15" venezuelan pike cichlid, a 8-9" friedrichstalli cichlid, a 7" indo datnoid, and a 7" mayan cichlid in with the gars and they are no problem either. They all pretty much ignore the gars, and vice versa.
dang exagerate much cichlids and gars even aro and catfish can all live together in hormony as long as they have the space and are all feed acording to they natural habits. its true you might need to provide extra feeders for them if your cichlids are hungry and snatching all feeders befor your gar gets to them but if you have a balenced diet of pallet, frozen, and live. then plump the cichlids with pallet/frozen befor throwing in the live and your gar will get to the live food more often live food should be given in moderation anyway i would let him starve for a bit till he starts eating the pallet/frozen. remember introducing anything living into your tank can result in infections or illnesse so unless you trust your source %100 i would only feed pallet/frozen
EvilKid;4301349; said:
I totally agree. Even with a system of treating my feeders with Aquari-sol in quaranteen and pitching the ones that died (regardless of what I thought of the vendor!), I have still had a number of parasite outbreaks that I have had to treat.
The strange thing is, with the exception of the red bay snook (fully understandable), the fish that seemed most susceptical to the parasitic infections (Obvious ick) Convict Cichlid and (continuous white beedy poop) the two Kirin Parrot (frankenfish now decased) never ate the live feeders in the tank for the Gar(s) and snook.
In fact, in all the half a dozen external parasite infections that I have had to treat the tanks with, I have only seem one small sign (and am nnot positive at that) of a Gar contracting them. I think that my big LNG might have had an extremely minor case of velvet that I nipped in the bud quickly.
Gars seem like a hardy lot!
EvilKid;4301349; said:
besides, wouldn't it be easier to simply throw prepared food in until all the fish get their share?
finally, it's really not the gars getting enough food that is the issue. i am no cichlid guy, but the impression i get from reading through various sub-forums & several first hand experiences, cichlids can get way too aggressive to be housed with gars. many issues can arrise from the aggression; a stressed out gar, broken back gar, eyes eaten out gar & much more. on top of everything, the gar in question here is a shortnose gar. that means, increased risk for psychotic and unpredictable behaviour on the gars part.
at the end of the day, it's up to the op to decide what he wants to do with his fish. but since he has asked for opinions on the combo, try refraining from blasting points of views that do not fall in line with your own.
xander
