Gars biting???

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cpm6t

Gambusia
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2011
577
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18
Sri Lanka
I was reading threads on the Gar forum and came across a thread regarding gars biting the hand when feeding or trying to arrange the tank. Looks like it is very common.

Is it correct? I mean do you gar owners freely put your hand in to the tank freely, like having any other large fish or always take precautions before putting your hands in?
I have a baby Arowana and it bites my hand when I feed him bloodworms, but it is quite funny since it does not have teeth (at least not yet. don't know whether it will have when grow up). But if the gar has that behavior it will definitely not be funny.

What precautions do you take when feeding and putting your hand in?
 
I just stick my hand in. My fish are still afraid of the hand that feeds them, so if there isn't directly food attached to it, they swim the other way. I've never been concerned about my hand while cleaning the tank or anything. Gars aren't aggressive fish, and IIRC, they'll only bite something they can swallow.
 
I need to have someone else spotting when I do serious tank maintenance (requiring me to reach into the tank and blocks my vision). My 10 gars will attack anything that disturbs the surface.
 
cpm6t said:
I was reading threads on the Gar forum and came across a thread regarding gars biting the hand when feeding or trying to arrange the tank. Looks like it is very common.

Is it correct? I mean do you gar owners freely put your hand in to the tank freely, like having any other large fish or always take precautions before putting your hands in?
I have a baby Arowana and it bites my hand when I feed him bloodworms, but it is quite funny since it does not have teeth (at least not yet. don't know whether it will have when grow up). But if the gar has that behavior it will definitely not be funny.

What precautions do you take when feeding and putting your hand in?
Click to expand...
I do everything I can to not have any of my fish associate my hand with being fed. All my fish that I've grown from small, even the predators, hide when my hand is in the tank. I don't trust any of my fish though, I still watch them closely and would pull my hand if they got too close. There's way too much damage they could do if they wanted to.

The moral, I guess, is that if you continue to associate your hand with food for your Aro... It's going to remember that. One day it'll have teeth. :)
 
as stated above... I try to avoid associating my hands with food. I also am use to haveing fish that can do damage if they get ahold of you. I use common sense when dealing with anything that can hurt me.. and reguardless I always watch my fishes reaction to maintenece ect.. thats when ime accidents happen like tank jumping or glass ramming.
 
I vacuum my Gar's tank every two weeks and I've never been bitten. He's scared of any foreign object that I put in the tank, including my hand, and usually stays on the opposite side of the tank or as far from me as he can.
 
mine will attack me if i am doing something inside the tank. most of the time it is started with taps to my pinky from the gars nose. one thing that i have found is that bowfin will attack ANYTHING new to their tank. it don't matter if it is an algae scraper, cleaning line, plant you name it. they seem to be fine with anything i have them with to start or if they are moved into an existing tank. i always keep my eyes on them.
 
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