my gar are currently in a 55 by themselves growing out for the 310. My aren't real jumpy and dont bang the tank walls really at all so the whole "small gars small tank" thing is hit or miss. Mine are aprox. 5" I'd say, maybe slightly smaller and I havent had a problem yet. Good luck with them, they are awesome fish, but like what has been said already on here they need alot of room...all thats in my tank currently is two sword plants about 12" tall and they love to hang out in that when its lights on and they float right under the duckweed mat in the corners when the lights are off. I am having a bit of trouble getting them to take anything but feeders but I'm alright with that for now until they bulk up a bit. again, good luck! post pics!
Gars incoming! A few questions
- Thread starter the lion who ate the sun
- Start date
You should get some polys for sure! They're really interesting to watch. Especially in a tank full of ghost shrimp. They swim like dolphins almost, and enter into an almost crocodilian sort of cruise when honing in on a shrimp. They curl into a 'c' or 's' shape right before striking, almost like an arowana that is attempting to breach. Some of them can be pretty lazy, especially if you drop food on their face and don't give them a good reason to move around. Feeding floating, freeze dried krill forces them to go searching.
My Faranah lap and 9y/o senegalus are pretty quick to hone in on food, but only when they are in certain moods. Half the time they let it sit a while. The others in the tank take their time. The whole grow out tank descends on their pile the second it hits the substrate and writhe all over vying for better seats at the table. That shouldnt be a problem though. If I create two food piles one almost always gets ignored. They put on blinders when surrouded by massivore.
I think they'll wind up being really healthy fish.
The Faranah is the only one who would try to swallow the gar. She can be audacious about meals. The first month after adding her she continually hunted an ornate that is/was 3/5 her length. She eventually gave up when the ornate put on a bit more bulk. Do gar hang out in caves often if they are provided? The only way I could see the Faranah actually catching one is if the gar took a nap in the center of her den and couldn't figure out how to maneuver away in the event that she did strike. That really shouldn't be a problem though, the Poly's will always be kept well fed.
My Faranah lap and 9y/o senegalus are pretty quick to hone in on food, but only when they are in certain moods. Half the time they let it sit a while. The others in the tank take their time. The whole grow out tank descends on their pile the second it hits the substrate and writhe all over vying for better seats at the table. That shouldnt be a problem though. If I create two food piles one almost always gets ignored. They put on blinders when surrouded by massivore.
I think they'll wind up being really healthy fish.The Faranah is the only one who would try to swallow the gar. She can be audacious about meals. The first month after adding her she continually hunted an ornate that is/was 3/5 her length. She eventually gave up when the ornate put on a bit more bulk. Do gar hang out in caves often if they are provided? The only way I could see the Faranah actually catching one is if the gar took a nap in the center of her den and couldn't figure out how to maneuver away in the event that she did strike. That really shouldn't be a problem though, the Poly's will always be kept well fed.
Thanks for the post. What are the dimensions on your 310? What are the gar like at that size? Are they afraid of you still? When did you get them?
My 310 is 7x3x2 roughly.
they are actually very mild mannered fish...don't mind my hands in the tank, don't mind me watching or walking around the tank at all really. They only get skiddish if I make extremely sharp movements near them but I mean I really have to move fast for them to get scared.
I got them probably about 2 months ago give or take. One of the cooler fish I've kept. My grow out polys were in with them for a while and I didn't have any issues there at all. But I only have a koliba, del, and sen all at about the same length as the gars so there was no aggression at all.
Hung has this happened to you? I've never seen this with small gar and the only gars I've seen with broken backs were kept in small tanks.
Oh lawd. And here I thought the concensus was in.
Maybe I'll put 50% of each gar in the 180 and the other 50% in the 37 and then see which half fares better. Sneaking suspicion the toothy end would be the victor regardless of habitat. Really though, I am fairly confident in my ability to not spook them, and acclimate them to my presence. The 180 is now 3/4 wrapped in black, and I might even pick up some additional plants to pad the small portion of the left and right walls that is not already blocked off by plants/DW.
Any other input is much appreciated. At this point I'm thinking that sub7" will go in the 37, and greater than 8 in the 180. Between 7 and 8" will be my wildcard and in that case I'll put them in a 10g bucket with 300ish gut loaded ghost shrimp and blast the yakkety sax through my living room speakers for the next 24 hours. Howzat?
Loving that piranha in your avatar by the way, knh. Rare to see them with such big ears.
My gar never use caves, they rarely even go to the bottom unless there's sinking pellets. I know you're opposed to feeders but 80 degree water and a bunch of feeders will make your smaller gar shoot up in size rapidly.
I have some 3-350 ghost shrimp I'll be picking up tomorrow. There will be a glorious massivore gut loaded shrimp buffet, trust me on that
more like they were put in small tank after they break their back in a big tank.
And if the gar get scared in a big tank, you can start seeing them swimming around and hit their nose into the glass. Even my larger gar do that sometime, but they are big and strong enough to withstand the impact.
read that stickies: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?419773-Proper-Husbandry-for-Your-Gar
and just follow it if you don't want to chance your fish's life. The information is taken from what a lot of people had experienced and also from gar researchers/scientists member of this forum.
and just follow it if you don't want to chance your fish's life. The information is taken from what a lot of people had experienced and also from gar researchers/scientists member of this forum.
