how fast do they grow? are they good community fish? (with silver aros, flagtail, rtc and bichirs) and finally how aggressive do they get? thanks.
just a couple of questions about alligators
- Thread starter peewee
- Start date
in my experience, yes, no, and very.. My gator doubled in size in less than a month, tried to kill almost everything i put him with (including a silver aro twice his size) and would even go for me if I had my hand near him. Very cool fish for a gar com or species tank though, but they get MASSIVE, be ready to upgrade to a pond within a year or so.
we are under gars in ancient fish forum so that should pretty much explain what i'm talkin about.
I got my Atractosteus (Lepisosteus) spatula at about 5" from The Fish Place in North Tonawanda New York in 2001. I have grown mine very slowly and it is only 36" long now total length.
I started it in a 180 and then put it in my 15k. It tried to eat a 12" clarias batrachus when the gar was only 18" himself. The catfish got stuck in his mouth and I had to physically remove him. Over the next few years in winter I kept him in tanks ranging from 250g to 810g and put him outside in ponds for the summer.
When we brought him in this past summer I decided to put him in the 52k. In the 1st week in the tank he almost got eaten by the female Wallago leerii and the catfish's mouth outline could be seen on the gars body at 14" from the gar's nose. Since that escape the gar has learned to stay for the most part near the surface level.
Here is a video (52k video 3) with the gar shown in the 2nd camera shot about 2 1/2 minutes into the video taken about a week ago. In it you can see some of his tank mates
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM_1pXHGm-s
and a picture catching him out of the pond in September 2009.
I started it in a 180 and then put it in my 15k. It tried to eat a 12" clarias batrachus when the gar was only 18" himself. The catfish got stuck in his mouth and I had to physically remove him. Over the next few years in winter I kept him in tanks ranging from 250g to 810g and put him outside in ponds for the summer.
When we brought him in this past summer I decided to put him in the 52k. In the 1st week in the tank he almost got eaten by the female Wallago leerii and the catfish's mouth outline could be seen on the gars body at 14" from the gar's nose. Since that escape the gar has learned to stay for the most part near the surface level.
Here is a video (52k video 3) with the gar shown in the 2nd camera shot about 2 1/2 minutes into the video taken about a week ago. In it you can see some of his tank mates
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM_1pXHGm-s
and a picture catching him out of the pond in September 2009.
please do some searching on the forum before posting thread with general info questions like this...the gator gar info is very easy to find on this and many other forums. in short, they get big, and they are NOT good tankmates with 99% of predatory fishes.
if you are asking these questions, you are almost certainly not ready for one. i would recommend starting with an easier-to-keep/manage gar like a Florida gar or a tropical. good luck--
--solomon
if you are asking these questions, you are almost certainly not ready for one. i would recommend starting with an easier-to-keep/manage gar like a Florida gar or a tropical. good luck--
--solomon
PS - arapaimag, that is one of the most impressive home setups i have ever seen! congrats on a very well-done display and great looking fishes!--
--solomon
--solomon
btw, superb set up arapaimag...the only reason i asked these questions is because i intended to buy a florida gar in my LFS but the next day when i went back there none was left except for alligator gars. i have to take pics of them to confirm whether they are really gator gars. but that's what the owner of the LFS says. I do know that those guys grow humongous but what i don't know is how fast they grow. i also know they are predatory and pretty aggressive but again what i don't know is that they should only be kept in a species set up. so yeah, thanks again guys. maybe not a such good idea after all to replace florida gars with alligator gars.