help!! new gar

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fishingaddict

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 25, 2006
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houston, texas
what kinda gar is this? i gotta new gar in my 55 g.. started off just fine even ate within ten minutes of lettin him out the bag. then later on tonight he started spazzin out randomly.. then more often, and now looks like hes gonna die. whats goin on? what happen?

garshot.JPG
 
Hard to tell from the angle of that pic, but I think it's a shortnose.

I've never kept a shortnose but they are supposed to be one of the most nervous/skittish gars.

I have a Cuban gar that has knocked himself out 3 times, he is very nervous.

It probably banged it's head a few times and is concussed.

Does it have any aggressive or very active tankmates? That could be the problem.
 
yea theres 2 small pbass (2-3inches) in there. but they dont mess wit him. the gar just hangs around on the top part of the tank. made me real nervous. it would randomly spazz out and start havin these weird violent twitches.. then nose dive to the gravel. thought he was done for. so i put him in my koi pond and now he seems fine. i dont think this is normal behavior.
 
Well it's semi normal behaviour. Some species of gar do tend to freak out hardcore, especially when young. Put it this way, 3 times so far I've looked round to see my Cuban gar floating around the tank upside down thinking he was done for, then he'd have a few spaz attacks and come back to life.


How big is the pond? Is he going to be able to eat fine there?>
 
shortnose gars are freakin retards. they grow massively and twich like retards all day long. there the first to jump when u walk by the tank. splashing, always eating, twitching. super skittish of all gars i would say. pretty normal if you ask me.
 
wow i didnt know that.. i thought he was done for. i guess its good then? freakin weird.. yea hes done the upside down thing too. even lying on the floor upside down. whatta idiot.
 
It's not a shortnose it is a Florida Lepisosteus platyrhincus.

No gar should be called normal if it is twitching and spazzing out as you describe.
To even call this behavior normal is exceedingly retarded, irresponsable and down right ignorant about these fish...How do you guys sleep at night with advice like that ?????

That aside:
What are your water conditions like? specificly ammonia and Nitrates. Also please add details of filtration and exactly what it is you are feeding the fish. Lets see if we can't find the cause for your fishes distress and fix it.
 
Polypterus is correct, this behavior is NOT normal. even though a gar will knock itself out sometimes, that behavior is not normal either. there is going to be some external stimuli to cause the gar to freak out and knock itself out.

with the twitching, there is obviously something going on in the tank that has not yet been figured out. providing us with the information polypterus requested will help get to the potential causes of the problem.

keeping a skittish fish like a gar with pbass is definitely not recommended, as the pbass could easily set off the gar.
what are the tank parameters...water temp, pH, all tankmates, filtration, etc?

at least in the pond it should be calmer. keep us posted and good luck regardless--
--solomon
 
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