Gars accepting shrimp!

[ampthefrogguy]

So Ive been working with my two florida gars these last two weeks trying to get them onto raw market prawns and I am happy to report
they now both eat all the shrimp pieces I throw in..even off the floor of the tank which i was surprised about! I am now happy to not having to buy 300
goldfish a week! My endli adapted in the first day, cleaning up all the shrimp the gars rejected! At first they wouldnt snap at the shrimp at all. I had to turn the lights in the
room and tank off so just my "moon" simulator light was on. Then Id throw it near them and they would snap at it but spit it out. After doing this a few nights I finally got the bigger one to swallow a piece! The smaller one followed suit. The next night i turned the room light on but kept the tank light off. And yesterday they both ate in full light!
: So I imagine they are well on their way to trusting me and not being so skiddish? anything else I should throw in sometimes for supplement? Advice? Thanks guys...Im kinda proud because I successfully trained my first gars haha! I know some people have a lot of trouble.

 

[Eric99]

I am trying to get mine to do that. I hope I can but congrats to you!

 

[tan]

Congratulation...Mission accomplished... It felt great when I trained my Armatus to eat smelts instead of live feeder too..

 

[biguebs]

I've had a lot of success just using wooden skewers... i fed live feeders to my gar when i first got him (in an individual growout tank), but now he's in my big tank w/ cichlids. So, after a few days i got him to take raw shrimp on the skewer. This ended up being the best way to make sure he gets fed (without doing feeders). Once he was used to that, I started stuffing the shrimp with pellets... hoping to get him all the way to pellets soon. He's to the point where he is investigating the pellets, but not there yet. It's a process...

Good job getting him off the live tho... it's the first step in a longer and healthier life for your gar.