Gar newbie

[siôn.griffin]

Did you read my thread about feeding Gars freeze-dried shrimps?

 

[Vulkan]

in my experience, gar do take in freeze dried shrimps. My gars love em', i feed them 12-20 shrimps a day each. Its much more economical then feeders, but ill admit it took me a while to train them on eating shrimps. Anyways good luck.

 

[RedDwarf]

Your best bet is to go with a nice florida gar to start out with. Your tank size is going to dictate how often you need to upgrade. If you start out with a small gar ~4-6" then I would start out with a 20 gal tank because most likely it's going to only eat live food at this stage. The smaller tank will help the gar find food easier, granted it will find food in a larger tank but if you are planning on only growing out the gar, the tank will look very empty. It's all going to come down to your space constraints, if you can't get a larger tank to fit down the road, then you might be better off getting one of the smaller false gars. Keep in mind that of all the true gars I have kept, they don't tend to grow steadily but in spurts. Gars can be trained to eat almost any food you would want to feed them, but when they are under a year, you want to basically free feed them (have access to food at all times) to prevent developmental problems. In my experience when gars reach a size of over 12" they will take almost any food you want to offer. You can even hand feed them. One other nice thing about starting out with a 20 gal tank is that once you upgrade, you can quarantine your feeders in it.

 

[Younglin]

I would not recommend a gar to start. Gars require large tanks and excellent filtration. It will be a serious investment and I don't think its one a newbie should make. Get a 20 gallon tank and some small cichlids like convicts ( just one ) until you gain some experience and knowledge.

 

[NocturnalX]

Your best bet is to go with a nice florida gar to start out with. Your tank size is going to dictate how often you need to upgrade. If you start out with a small gar ~4-6" then I would start out with a 20 gal tank because most likely it's going to only eat live food at this stage. The smaller tank will help the gar find food easier, granted it will find food in a larger tank but if you are planning on only growing out the gar, the tank will look very empty. It's all going to come down to your space constraints, if you can't get a larger tank to fit down the road, then you might be better off getting one of the smaller false gars. Keep in mind that of all the true gars I have kept, they don't tend to grow steadily but in spurts. Gars can be trained to eat almost any food you would want to feed them, but when they are under a year, you want to basically free feed them (have access to food at all times) to prevent developmental problems. In my experience when gars reach a size of over 12" they will take almost any food you want to offer. You can even hand feed them. One other nice thing about starting out with a 20 gal tank is that once you upgrade, you can quarantine your feeders in it.

that's very nice to know. thank you thank you.
as i'm planning to get around 4" gar first, i have a 20 long tank.
can you give me an advice about when should i upgrade tanks?
i mean if the gar reaches what size?


p.s.
i thank those who think it's not a good idea for me to get a gar first as well.
i consider that as an honest opinion and not a discouragement, thank you.
but i'm really interested in gars, and don't worry i won't get the gar if i feel i haven't done enough research yet. i've been doing a lot of reading lately. of course i know experience is the best teacher, but i just think taking care of a fish i'm not interested in would be more pointless.

 

[siôn.griffin]

I was a newbie to keeping predetorial fish (the only biggish fish I had was a Black Ghost Knife Fish), until I got a couple of Florida Gars several months ago.

 

[NocturnalX]

I was a newbie to keeping predetorial fish (the only biggish fish I had was a Black Ghost Knife Fish), until I got a couple of Florida Gars several months ago.

hello sion.griffin
btw yes i saw your thread about gars eating frozen shrimps.

so how's your florida gars doing after several months?
any tips or advice for me? ^^
and our countries are neighbors hehe

 

[Younglin]

My general rule of thumb is make sure the tank is twice as wide as the gar is long and at least three times longer than the gar. Then they have plenty of space. Of course if you go bigger than that, that is even better.

 

[NocturnalX]

My general rule of thumb is make sure the tank is twice as wide as the gar is long and at least three times longer than the gar. Then they have plenty of space. Of course if you go bigger than that, that is even better.

that's a really good advice for the size of the tank. thanks!

 

[siôn.griffin]

I find them easy to keep, as long as you have a decent sized tank