Gator Gar slime coat issues

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R

Ramesh

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 25, 2008
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My Alligator Gar has a gray, creamy type of slime covering some parts of his body. He has gone off his food and is not very responsive.
I have completed a water change and added some salt but I am not sure what is the under lying cause.
I recently turning off the tanks heaters to acclimatise the fish for transfer to a outdoor pond in a few weeks.
Has anyone had experience with this type of condition and what should I do?
 
and pics?
 
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I am not sure what could be the cause but the slime does sloth off and gets caught in the sponge prefilter I use on the sand filter. I now have th UV running 24h instead of for 6h and will continue to do water changes and will measure the water parameters ASAP.
Has anybody seen this or had this happen before??
 
Ramesh;4032132; said:
Has anybody seen this or had this happen before??
Click to expand...

I just saw this in a lfs last weekend. There was a slimy white coating covering the whole length of the body (except the head and the tail fin) of a gator gar. It was far more serious than that showing in your video and it was quite appalling. The other fish in the tank looked healthy and weren't affected by it. I will go to the lfs and see how it is doing the coming weekend.
 
given that most of those tankmates are not recommended for gars, one cannot discount the possibility that one of them or more has stressed out the gar in some way. this could lead to sloughing of slime coat and potential bacterial infection.

i would set up a hospital tank, even if it's just a tub with a heater and sponge filter or airstone. set the temp back up to 82F and add 1 tbsp of salt per 10 gallons of water. i would do a water change of at least 50% each day until the condition starts to improve.

what is your temp currently? normally a gar shouldn't react like this to the temp change, so we can likely rule that out. if none of the other fishes are showing similar signs, it further suggests that removing the gar and treating it on its own may be the best course of action.

i would move on this sooner than later because slime coat bacterial infections are usually quite aggressive with gars, and cannot be treated once they reach a certain stage. if you bump the temp/water changes/add salt the fish should likely recover--
--solomon
 
Hmm...I dont have any insightful knowledge about this, but I believe I did have an experience with this once. When I first purchased my gar, it came through a special order. The gar must have stayed in the bag at least a day or two since the water was almost white instead of clear when I came to pick him up. The slime coat was exactly like yours except it was ALL over him; It looked like it was peeling; I did what was recommended, bump up temp and salt.

Are you sure all the waters parameters are correct? I heard stories about sometimes water parameters going out of whack even for established tanks.

Best of luck
 
yeah my florida gar does this too usually after a big meal not on a regular basis but i have seen it a few times its like they hibernate and shed but i don't know if its quite the same as my fish is alot smaller but it looks like the slim coat is flaking of as if it where sand or something just like ur vid. he usually snaps out of it within a day or so and i have noticed high flow like from a powerhead helps
 
iv had that before sadly. WC are needed and it will disappear. Its bacterial infection i believe. WQ most likly is the answer. If i dont keep up on my WC often enough(have to do mine every 2 weeks if i wait too much longer than that the shorty gets it) then i can get it but WC and mine goes away in a hour. but mine doesnt look that bad. Iv learned my lesson and really try to keep up my WC. GL and it should be pretty easy to cure. Salt will help to!! GL!!

ps iv learned my lesson and i keep up my WC now. I try my best to never let it gets this far, its hard on the fish. DONT let this happen!!
 
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