Help! broken jaw!

[crowxviii]

I hope somebody can help or give me an idea on how to care for florida gar with broken lower jaw. I think my gator snapped at him. My florida's a foot long and the gator is 2x his size.
When I first got the gator, he was still 6-7inches while the florida was around 10 inches. I thought they would get along fine. They've been together in a 6x3x1.5 tank for atleast 6 months now. I did not expect this unusual behavior coz they always swim closely with each other.
The florida is still swimming fine now, I'm just worried about his diet. I dont think he can catch his food like before and he only eats live feeders. Will his jaw return to normal?
Has anyone encountered this problem? right now i'm thinking of hand feeding it...not sure if it would work though

Any suggestion coming from you is very much welcome...Thank you.
I will post a pic if i can get one...

 

[HayMAC]

Man that sux...good luck

 

[xander]

I hope somebody can help or give me an idea on how to care for florida gar with broken lower jaw. I think my gator snapped at him. My florida's a foot long and the gator is 2x his size.
When I first got the gator, he was still 6-7inches while the florida was around 10 inches. I thought they would get along fine. They've been together in a 6x3x1.5 tank for atleast 6 months now. I did not expect this unusual behavior coz they always swim closely with each other.
The florida is still swimming fine now, I'm just worried about his diet. I dont think he can catch his food like before and he only eats live feeders. Will his jaw return to normal?
Has anyone encountered this problem? right now i'm thinking of hand feeding it...not sure if it would work though

Any suggestion coming from you is very much welcome...Thank you.
I will post a pic if i can get one...

hopefully people reading this can realise we're not jabbering when we say that gator - tankmate (that is already smaller or going to be smaller in a couple of months) combos are ill advised.

to the op, whether or not the fish recovers depends on the extent of the damage done. including a picture will definately help. i have a gar right now that has a broken lower jaw when it was smaller. the fish can hunt and eat completely normally, so if your gar's jaw isn't too badly damaged, and is not subject to further injury (time to seperate it from the gator?) then it should recover & feed normally.

 

[Madding]

What you are describing is not unusual behavior at all. Gator's are bound to snap eventually. The first step to saving your Florida is to move it.

 

[tigrey]

my friends gar broke his back from hitting the glass in the tank, we decided that it will be better of if we just kill it right there and put it out of its misery. this is what happens when you have a crazy gator gar. i would suggest you just kill it, sell your gator gar and get another florida or just keep your gator gar by itself.

 

[xander]

my friends gar broke his back from hitting the glass in the tank, we decided that it will be better of if we just kill it right there and put it out of its misery. this is what happens when you have a crazy gator gar. i would suggest you just kill it, sell your gator gar and get another florida or just keep your gator gar by itself.

how'd you come to the conclusion that this'll be the best course of action?

 

[kdrun76]

Does "gator" mean alligator or alligator gar. You never said.

 

[tigrey]

how'd you come to the conclusion that this'll be the best course of action?

i just cant stand looking at a messed up fish, i would rather kill it peacefully and fast then live a painfull life. this is just my opinion

alligator gar

 

[xander]

i just cant stand looking at a messed up fish, i would rather kill it peacefully and fast then live a painfull life. this is just my opinion

alligator gar

if it's a minor injury, the fish should heal fine & won't be living a painful life...anyways don't you think the op would have already done that if he felt the same way about "messed up" fish? eitherways i'd have thought giving it away would be a better option...there're plenty of people who'd gladly take in the fish. just something to think about.

 

[E_americanus]

photograph will help us determine if the fish can either recover or continue feeding and still function properly. i would advise doing this before euthanizing the fish.

also, as stated earlier, it is unfortunate this had to happen, but hopefully others read this and realize that large gator w/ smaller gars (or other fishes) combo is quite unpredictable and volatile...and should not be advised.

**I hope Spatula reads this too.

--solomon