Gator Gar slime coat issues

[Ramesh]

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

The fish is has been solo in the tank for sometime now but I will take on your suggestion about bumping up the temp and keeping up the WC and salt treatment.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[E_americanus]

The fish is has been solo in the tank for sometime now but I will take on your suggestion about bumping up the temp and keeping up the WC and salt treatment.
Thanks for your advice.

gotcha. good thing the gar is on his own already and it should make the recovery easier (my bad on jumping to the conclusion that the fishes in your signature were all together...that's what i get for skimming).

depending on how much you want to invest in salting the tank and water changes, you may want to move him to a smaller tank, but that's more an issue of convenience provided you can keep up the salt concentration and water changes.

keep us posted on its recovery--
--solomon

 

[fisherman1035]

that gar is tight were did u get it.

 

[Ramesh]

Sorry to tell you guys but the big girl didn't make it I woke this morning and was stunned to find a dead fish on the bottom of my tank. I am really gutted and I am just lost for words, my whole family are in a state of shock that she is dead.

 

[Spatula]

WTF, that Gator Gar is dead?!

We need some experts to chime in here and give some more detail on what exactly happened and why. In all honestly it didn't look that bad in the video.
My Gar sometimes has a stringy piece of slime on him that almost look like spider webs, but that is usually only right after a waterchange cause stuff is getting kicked up. I would really like some more insight as to what happened here so we can prevent this from happening again.

TS, I am so sorry for your loss, especially if you had that fish since it was young. We would be DEVASTATED if we ever lost our boy so I can only imagine how you feel.
I would say get a new Gator Gar immediately, but let's find out what happened here first.

 

[Ramesh]

No, I am noy going to rush to get another one. I really enjoyed keeping her and need to think about what I am going to do with her purpose built 3.6mx3mx1m, 10,0000L outdoor pond!!
I am still really shocked and just fished her out of the tank, she was an amazing fish and I probably thought she was more resilient than she was.
Yesterday I did a water change, added some salt, turned on the heat and left her alone.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

WTF!?!?!? that makes no since.....

 

[Spatula]

This thread has me soooo worried now cause he sounds like he loved and cared for his gar like how I love/care for mine. I too also believe my fish is super resilient and strong, but this makes me realize that they are still just a fish and stuff can go bad. However we really need to find out what the hell happened here.

TS, Is there anything else you can think of that might have contributed to this? I re read your post and the only thing you mention is shutting off the heaters. Did you notice the slime issue before that or did it seem to onset after you disabled the heaters? How cold was it when you turned off the heaters and how cold is it where you live?

Man, I'm almost in tears just thinking about waking up and see our boy just laying on the ground. This is ridiculous, I am at work and now my eyes are all teared up... I'll feel a little better if we can figure out WTF happened here.