GarLab I [The Tank] - Cuban Gar study

[E_americanus]

that's great Sol! how big are the bunch now?

Looking forawrd to seeing these guys all grow up.

The one that I got from him is about 10.5" long, and I believe that it was one of the larger ones from its batch.

thanks for the comments all!

@ xander - i have stopped with regular measurements as this phase of the study is done with these gars. we will be moving on to other work with this batch a bit later in the summer. they definitely continue to grow, but i am not feeding them ad libitum at this point. see my response to Ryan's comment below.

@ Minis - thanks! it will definitely be interesting to see how they progress, young gars show a lot of growth in their first year, but little has actually been documented with CBGs. either way, they are packing on the weight!

@ Ryan - thanks for the measurement...if you're is 10.5" then i am sure there are a few larger ones. yours was more on the average portion of the size spectrum, which is what i am sending off to others (yours is probably on the "large end of average"). there are some horses that i am keeping for our future work, and the 1-2 that are a bit smaller (prob 9-9.5" now) i'm keeping as well.

all that being said, they are being given maintenance ration right now, and i am also toying with giving them a variety of feed types so they will be prepped for further work.

on another note i was able to get the majority of the new small batch to take FD krill last night...they are much pickier and hesitant, but most took it off the feeding stick. hopefully that bodes well for eventual early pellet training! that's all for now!--
--solomon

 

[skiptomyzoo]

Excellent thread. Thanks for the read.

 

[Wiggles92]

thanks for the comments all!

@ xander - i have stopped with regular measurements as this phase of the study is done with these gars. we will be moving on to other work with this batch a bit later in the summer. they definitely continue to grow, but i am not feeding them ad libitum at this point. see my response to Ryan's comment below.

@ Minis - thanks! it will definitely be interesting to see how they progress, young gars show a lot of growth in their first year, but little has actually been documented with CBGs. either way, they are packing on the weight!

@ Ryan - thanks for the measurement...if you're is 10.5" then i am sure there are a few larger ones. yours was more on the average portion of the size spectrum, which is what i am sending off to others (yours is probably on the "large end of average"). there are some horses that i am keeping for our future work, and the 1-2 that are a bit smaller (prob 9-9.5" now) i'm keeping as well.

all that being said, they are being given maintenance ration right now, and i am also toying with giving them a variety of feed types so they will be prepped for further work.

on another note i was able to get the majority of the new small batch to take FD krill last night...they are much pickier and hesitant, but most took it off the feeding stick. hopefully that bodes well for eventual early pellet training! that's all for now!--
--solomon

I'm going to try to do weekly measurements of both the Cuban gar and the spotted gar, so I'll keep you posted on their progress as far as growth and feeding go.

 

[E_americanus]

I'm going to try to do weekly measurements of both the Cuban gar and the spotted gar, so I'll keep you posted on their progress as far as growth and feeding go.

nice; just keep an eye on them if they seem to be too stressed from the process. the SPGs were used to it at one point as they were measured weekly, but that was over a year ago.

what is more useful at this point (and will be more noticeable) is if you can get weights on the fish...this metric should increase much more than length; trick is weight requires higher tech than length!--
--solomon

 

[E_americanus]

just a quick update - all the "big" CBGs (aka study 1 fish) have been moved to the 50g breeder (well filtered) for temporary housing so the study 2 fish could be separated into 20gL tanks.

the good news is that they have learned (and taught each other) to eat pellets now...taking hikari floating sticks and cichlid gold. the FD krill seemed to work well as a "gateway food" to eating floating items off the surface.

video update will be posted soon!--
--solomon

 

[E_americanus]

video update of the study 1 fish:

[YT]MmBL7f6W1OY[/YT]

 

[E_americanus]

quick update post - had to pick up and set up a 75g tank to temporarily house the study 1 CBGs (previously in a 50g breeder). study 2 fish are currently in experimental tanks, but there will probably be some reshuffling soon.

pics and updates soon, we're now at 15 tanks at our house...it is getting pretty ridiculous!!!--
--solomon

 

[MonsterMinis]

Beauties. Looking forward to my hubbys present.

 

[xander]

hahaha insane!! am dying to visit the tank. how do you find the time to manage so many tanks?

 

[E_americanus]

hahaha insane!! am dying to visit the tank. how do you find the time to manage so many tanks?

it basically drives me insane most of the time. now that we have numerous study fish here, i don't get to spend much time enjoying the pet fish (not that i had much time beforehand), and a lot of them have contributed tissue samples as well.

i spent about 4+ hours on water changes monday night, so that takes a while when i am doing all the tanks. when it is just CBGs it's less time, but more frequent. pet fish get fed much less frequently than most people do on the forum, and there is a lot of monitoring time with the CBG stuff. luckily i can do a lot of my dissertation work from home, which is probably the main way i'm able to keep track of that many fishes all the time. oh, and i rarely get away for more than a day or two at a time, hahaha--
--solomon

PS-- more pics and video to come; as mentioned in the other thread, group 3 arrived yesterday--