Good non-live food for gar?

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biguebs

biguebs

Dovii
MFK Member
Mar 5, 2011
568
381
102
Fort Wayne, IN
I recently acquired a nice 8" spotted gar from snookn21. :headbang2 Very happy with the fish, he's in a 180 gal. He was on feeder guppies and I have tried to continue that for the time being. However, the issue I'm having has to do with two of his tankmates, a couple of 4" PB. There are ZERO aggression issues, they checked each other out when I put the gar in and that was it (I know abt the risk of keeping them together, obviously I'll monitor and separate if necessary).

You can probably see where this is going... the PB will nail whatever live feeder hits the water INSTANTLY. So, as a result, the gar is not getting enough to eat. I want to try and get him onto non-live but I'm not sure if he's big enough to starve him onto something else. I have read all the threads I can find, what should I do with this guy in terms of a non-live food option? Is there one thing that gar will take to quicker than other options? Any help is appreciated.
 
Nice! I hadn't thought of using a skewer... even though it's so obvious! Do silversides or chunks of shrimp get him everything he needs nutrionally? I guess I could eventually try and stuff some pellets...
 
I'm going to pick up some silversides from the LFS (maybe a feeding prong if they have one) and then a skewer and some market shrimp. thanks for the help guys...
 
I literally "toss" floating pellets onot tteh surface of the water.. worked pretty well.. freeze dried krill alos seems to work well as does frozen thawed.... Most gar are not that hard to convert. and if you've done your research... it's generally not suggested you starve a YOY gar. Just start offering it new foods along with live.... My guys ar so lazy they will often take pellets over live 'cause it's easier to catch imo.

hard part is with garbage disposals like PB, you'll likely need ot take a few extra minutes to make sure the gar gets something after they've stuffed themslves. I kept a juvi pair of pike cichlids w/ my gar for awhile and though the combo worked until they matured. I had to do this to make sure everone was eating well. I found trying to "get food" to my gar usually just ended up with a big splash and me worrying about a broken back since the pikes would try and steal it unless already full.
 
So the update is that he did NOT dig the wooden skewer on the first try. He took one look at it and bailed. I'm going to try again tonight. If I can't get him going with that I think I'll put him in a different tank and let him eat some feeders to fatten up a little before I convert him to non live.
 
Did you try the silversides?
 
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