going to smack my head against the wall...

[E_americanus]

Oh for sure, I was just giving her something else to look forward to seeing... I've never even seen one of my gars injured from snout locking (stronger scales than teeth apparently) and like you said it lasts for all of a second or two. The gars themselves seem more puzzled then anything and try their best to let go ASAP.

yeah, i figured that was the case - i meant to also quote screaminleeman's post too as i was replying to all three...i've never heard of mortality coming from a snout-lock encounter, and one would be surprised how long a gar can make it with some serious serious snout damage (we caught a yearling this year with literally no snout -well, 90% gone from both jaws- and it was somehow surviving and feeding)...mortality therefore must be a very rare result in most cases--
--solomon

 

[screaminleeman]

yeah, i figured that was the case - i meant to also quote screaminleeman's post too as i was replying to all three...i've never heard of mortality coming from a snout-lock encounter, and one would be surprised how long a gar can make it with some serious serious snout damage (we caught a yearling this year with literally no snout -well, 90% gone from both jaws- and it was somehow surviving and feeding)...mortality therefore must be a very rare result in most cases--
--solomon

Please keep in mind (even though I did not mention it in the above post) that the three Floridas I am referring to are all babies under four inches long. The one that died was only around 3.5". At that extremely small size, I have found that all gar (lep. species only have I kept) are extremely delicate until at least the 6+" range. I think that this extends to broken back as well. I (knock on wood) have never dealt with any break injuries to any Gar > 6", but have found it outrageously common (IMO the norm for me) to deal with it in babies.

No doubt in my mind that the Longnose Gar (of the lep. species) seem the most "brittle" at the baby stage, the most aggressive toward other gar of the lep. species, and are the most cannibalistic fish that I have owned outside of Convict cichlids! My bad little florida could not defend itself after the snout break. The albino Senegal Bichir that never bother any of the three began eating the helpless gar almost immediately.

I could have possibly done a much better job at attempting to revive the baby gar, but in previous posts, I documented my struggles to nurse a juvi. LNG with a broken back to health. Zander basically said no chance, but hardheaded me had to try to save it. Just when I was so proud and posted pictures of how well it had healed after months, it just up and dies.

 

[E_americanus]

Please keep in mind (even though I did not mention it in the above post) that the three Floridas I am referring to are all babies under four inches long. The one that died was only around 3.5". At that extremely small size, I have found that all gar (lep. species only have I kept) are extremely delicate until at least the 6+" range. I think that this extends to broken back as well. I (knock on wood) have never dealt with any break injuries to any Gar > 6", but have found it outrageously common (IMO the norm for me) to deal with it in babies.

No doubt in my mind that the Longnose Gar (of the lep. species) seem the most "brittle" at the baby stage, the most aggressive toward other gar of the lep. species, and are the most cannibalistic fish that I have owned outside of Convict cichlids! My bad little florida could not defend itself after the snout break. The albino Senegal Bichir that never bother any of the three began eating the helpless gar almost immediately.

I could have possibly done a much better job at attempting to revive the baby gar, but in previous posts, I documented my struggles to nurse a juvi. LNG with a broken back to health. Zander basically said no chance, but hardheaded me had to try to save it. Just when I was so proud and posted pictures of how well it had healed after months, it just up and dies.

that clarification on size would have definitely helped, particularly since the size issue makes it much less relevant a source of mortality in the context of the OP and Madding's post. gars at very small YOY sizes are VERY different than YOY at 4-6" or larger. they are much more sensitive to water quality issues, starvation, certain injuries, the list goes on. that and their bones are nowhere near fully developed, so that sort of snout-break damage is much more plausible.
furthermore, gars at very small sizes may be somewhat more prone to backbreak issues, but they are also more resilient to recovery from them. i've had numerous YOY gars develop back injuries and bounce back to full recovery from them, whereas yearling fishes and older tend to have some level of permanent damage even if they recover.--
--solomon

 

[MonsterMinis]

Thanks for the further read on the snout locking... and the suggestion in reguards to live/aggression. I intend to wait until the CBG was the same size as my floridas ( ie past the YOY phase) before transisitioning them all onto frozen/prepared diets. And actually brought back some nice pike and bass fillets to offer them, The walleye are for me! Everyone weathered the Vacation just fine while we where fishing in the BWCA border. Ended up adding 60 feeders to the tank when we left, and had someone stop by mid week to feed once. will def use this stratagy again if we will be gone that long. My husband just did 50% WC's the day before we left and 50% the day we got back. ended up doing an extra one a few days later on a few other tanks.. but again. It worked out really well w/ the "less is more" with haveing someone else watch the menagerie.

As for the original fin nipping issue... seems they came to an understanding as the fins seem to be healing now, not getting worse. As for the perp.. I'm pretty confident it actually is the floridas.. the day we left I saw the small florida make a go for the larger ones bottom fins, and actually try and bite her. Could still be teh CBG but he's still staying away from the FL's liek they are crazy ladies.

 

[Wiggles92]

I would definitely suspect the Cuban gar in this case based on the behavior of mine. The one that I got from Solomon is about 14" now and has a habit of nipping at the 12" spotted gars tail whenever its hungry/in a foul mood. With that being said, it's never anything major beyond the SPGs tail getting ripped a little, and the SPG's tail heals pretty quickly, too. These two gars are kept under similar conditions to your gars: they're in a well-filtered 75 gallon for the time being and get fed on a frequent basis. I fortunately haven't had the snout locking problem yet with any of my gars yet, though, so I guess I'm lucky.