I have an Alligator gar that needs a new home can anyone help me.

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misfitchild24

Feeder Fish
Aug 28, 2011
2
0
0
Lewistown, PA
my alligator gar is gettin too big too fast and my floors cannot hold a larger tank. so does anyone want him for a reasonable price. he is 18 inches long and is an awesome eater. when i bought him he was 12 inches long and in a 10 gallon tank, so i felt really bad and bought him. i tried everything i could to get his gill flaps to go back to normal but i think him bein in that tank for over a year really caused permanent damage. I live in Lewistown PA and if anyone knows where i can take him or if anyone wants him please let me know asap.
 
Do u Have a Pond?One would be a great house for them so as long you feed them :)
 
misfitchild24 said:
my alligator gar is gettin too big too fast and my floors cannot hold a larger tank. so does anyone want him for a reasonable price. he is 18 inches long and is an awesome eater. when i bought him he was 12 inches long and in a 10 gallon tank, so i felt really bad and bought him. i tried everything i could to get his gill flaps to go back to normal but i think him bein in that tank for over a year really caused permanent damage. I live in Lewistown PA and if anyone knows where i can take him or if anyone wants him please let me know asap.
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I'm about three hours away from you, and I have a reasonably large pond that I could put it in.
 
SamRoz said:
Wiggles, what do you do in the winter? Doesn't it get too cold to keep gars in a pond in PA?
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They do just fine during the winter if given the proper preparation.

I had my two longnose gars (18" at the time) in my ~500 gallon goldfish pond last Winter, and they both survived and still maintained decent body mass despite the fact that the pond was completely frozen over for weeks at a time. They were kept on live food (mainly minnows, sunfish, and goldfish) and were placed in the pond in early August in order to give them time to get ready for the changes of season. They were allowed to eat as much as they wanted while in that pond, and they put on a decent amount of size and body mass in preparation for Winter.

I have since moved those two longnose gars to my ~95,000 gallon spring-fed natives pond along with my two largest alligator gars. Said pond contains confirmed breeding populations of spotfin shiners, bluegill, and smallmouth bass, so there's plenty of food for the gars and the other fishes that are in there. There are also a few walleye/saugeye/sauger and a couple of flathead catfish in the pond. All of these fishes are growing pretty fast because of the ample food supply, so the gars should be able to get properly bulked up for Winter.

So as you can see, the name of the game is size, acclimation, and preparation when it comes to keeping gars in an unheated pond during the Winter.
 
Wiggles92 said:
They do just fine during the winter if given the proper preparation.

I had my two longnose gars (18" at the time) in my ~500 gallon goldfish pond last Winter, and they both survived and still maintained decent body mass despite the fact that the pond was completely frozen over for weeks at a time. They were kept on live food (mainly minnows, sunfish, and goldfish) and were placed in the pond in early August in order to give them time to get ready for the changes of season. They were allowed to eat as much as they wanted while in that pond, and they put on a decent amount of size and body mass in preparation for Winter.

I have since moved those two longnose gars to my ~95,000 gallon spring-fed natives pond along with my two largest alligator gars. Said pond contains confirmed breeding populations of spotfin shiners, bluegill, and smallmouth bass, so there's plenty of food for the gars and the other fishes that are in there. There are also a few walleye/saugeye/sauger and a couple of flathead catfish in the pond. All of these fishes are growing pretty fast because of the ample food supply, so the gars should be able to get properly bulked up for Winter.

So as you can see, the name of the game is size, acclimation, and preparation when it comes to keeping gars in an unheated pond during the Winter.
Click to expand...

Crap, I also forgot about genetics: Genetics definitely can have an influence on a gar's ability to overwinter.
 
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