comments on gar spawning in a nutshell (with bullets) :
- first off, the person in Costa Rica spawned his at essentially an aquaculture facility, so it is nothing like any of us hobbyists spawning our gars in a tank or even a small outdoor pond. the methods they use are very different than what hobbyists generally have access to, and they also combine some of the methods we used in spawning our spotted gars for our experiments. it's a great thread to look at, but not something people here can really replicate for many practical reasons.
...and on to more useful info:
- gar maturation is both age and size-related, and this can vary by species...IN GENERAL...
...Lepisosteus males mature in about 3 years, may be slightly longer for longnose gars from cooler climates, and is definitely less (sometimes just 1 year) for spotted and Florida gars in warmer climates (climate can play a large role in allocation of resources to either somatic growth or gonadal growth...fish in the south aren't facing the harsher conditions of the north, and can often afford to put more energy to gonadal development earlier on...in the north, fish still need to put on regular growth to survive periods of low food availability and harsh conditions...aka winter.
Lepisosteus females will mature in about 3-5 years, likely with a slight variation with climate as in males (we are doing more work in this area to reach stronger conclusions on these variations).
Atractosteus gars are very different from one another...gator gar males may take 3-6 years, but the females 10-12 years to mature. in all gars the females have a larger max size than males (unlike say, midas cichlids). tropical gar males can be mature in 1 year, and females in 2-3 years (early maturation depends a lot on first years' growth).
unfortunately we just don't know a ton about Cuban gar maturity, but i can tell you conclusively that males are mature by 5 years, possibly earlier (based on our own specimens). females are likely longer to mature, but not quite as long as alligator gar females.
- MOST of the behavior you will see with gars socializing in captivity is dominance behavior or just some other interaction among the gars...NOT mating behavior. i'm yet to read anything on this forum that would suggest any mating behavior in captive gars we have heard about thus far...and this comes from observations of gar spawning in the wild (direct observation) and in aquaculture facilities (conference video footage).
- it CAN happen in captivity...Hiroshi Azuma did it in a large tank back in the 90s i believe...and i have the article TFH put out on it. he spawned Florida gars, although the article was titled "spawning the spotted gar"...of course back then there was no distinction or attempt at distinction between these species in the trade, but the photos indicate Florida.
- for spawning to happen in captivity you would likely need a large tank AND large fish or very old fish...if you think your gars will spawn earlier, they would need to be on the large end of the spectrum, but much older smaller fish could still spawn (the latter was the case with Hiroshi).
- FINALLY...spawning is only the tip of the iceberg...taking care of tiny gar embryos and larvae is a full-time job!!!
hope that info helps a bit--
--solomon
