Hormones and breeding gar?

[E_americanus]

-won't get into all the details now, but it is a major project to undertake and it's not something that is done by private fish-keepers for profit. you have to have access to a good supply of ready-to-go broodstock, zooplankton to feed the fry (for at least a few weeks), and then plenty of small fish too. further, natural spawning (even with Ovaprim injection) is difficult to pull off; we often had to strip our broodstock to make it work. keep in mind we were rearing gars for our experiments, not for the singular purpose of selling them or anything like that...it's not something that makes ANY money.

in addition, if you don't plan on killing broodstock, you have to inject at the correct areas and at the proper dosage...if you are off you can kill off the broodstock (we have had this happen). also keep in mind that it was a mild winter, so many of the populations you are looking at are probably already spawning, at which point ovaprim is not very useful. you're better off planning a year in advance and getting them pre-spawn the next time.

just a few tips on all of that; in essence, it's not worth the work for hobbyists to bother with (i am also a hobbyist, and i wouldn't have done it if it were not for necessities tied with work/research). if you can get them to naturally spawn in captivity...now THAT would be something cool (and rarely occurs) --
--solomon

 

[Redbellypiranha]

Ryans right. Hit up solomon and/or richard on this. Not something to just mess with. That said, out of curiosity, what are you looking to breed?

what he said

 

[Polypterus]

-won't get into all the details now, but it is a major project to undertake and it's not something that is done by private fish-keepers for profit. you have to have access to a good supply of ready-to-go broodstock, zooplankton to feed the fry (for at least a few weeks), and then plenty of small fish too. further, natural spawning (even with Ovaprim injection) is difficult to pull off; we often had to strip our broodstock to make it work. keep in mind we were rearing gars for our experiments, not for the singular purpose of selling them or anything like that...it's not something that makes ANY money.

in addition, if you don't plan on killing broodstock, you have to inject at the correct areas and at the proper dosage...if you are off you can kill off the broodstock (we have had this happen). also keep in mind that it was a mild winter, so many of the populations you are looking at are probably already spawning, at which point ovaprim is not very useful. you're better off planning a year in advance and getting them pre-spawn the next time.

just a few tips on all of that; in essence, it's not worth the work for hobbyists to bother with (i am also a hobbyist, and i wouldn't have done it if it were not for necessities tied with work/research). if you can get them to naturally spawn in captivity...now THAT would be something cool (and rarely occurs) --
--solomon

Yep all those things... Seriously it is not worth the work and is not a viable "quick rich" scheme. Hell not even likely to break even on the expense or time involved.

 

[E_americanus]

Yep all those things... Seriously it is not worth the work and is not a viable "quick rich" scheme. Hell not even likely to break even on the expense or time involved.

"like"

also, richard knows very well what it took just to work with the fish we needed for experiments and maintain them. we had a field/lab assistant working with us as well, and it was all around a full-time sort of job keeping things going with juveniles. it's a fascinating thing to see the fish develop from embryos to juveniles, but if you have an area where gars actively congregate and spawn, you are just as well off to collect a few juveniles (or even larvae or eggs) and watch them develop on your own instead of time/resources spent on artificial spawning--
--solomon

 

[Wiggles92]

Great information, Solomon & Richard!

If either of you get the time, please PM me some more detailed information on this subject so that I can add it to the "Breeding Gars" section in the one sticky.