Ok, so I have poked around the forums and poked around the web, and I'm not finding a whole lot of info on Alligator Gars. Plenty online about fishing them, but how about keeping them in aquaria?
So questions would be, What ideal temp would the be kept at? As well as PH?
And what kind of growth rate do they have? Say, if you got one at 2ft, how fast would you expect it to grow?
I can go get some water out of the trinity river since i live in dallas and test the ph of it. as far as temp well they are native to tx 75ish to 80ish. this is just a guess seeing as I can't seem to find a gator gar for myself but it's probably pretty close.
ph around neutral is okay.
they arent very picky about water conditions.
ive never actually kept one,but from 2 feet onwards i think they can grow 2 inches per month until 3 feet,then slow down.
My 3 live with RTCs and arapaimas. Water care is the same (never measured the params). Feeding is the same. Pellets are accepted. They grow like crazy ... my biggest is almost 3' ... my biggest one is from Soccer World Cup (won it from my girlfriend ^^) so around two years + i hope he does not slow down with growth (though it seems to have)
I don't think 5' is the max in captivity there are specimens in Thailand (Udonthani) that are larger but these are in earth pond.
Some say they are very skittish. Alot of people seem to have them busting tanks and.or breaking their own backs on the glass. Mines are not skittish at all. Used to handfeed when they were babies ...not anymore lol All of my friends over here who kept them find them quite hardy.
Have bumpy snouts from time to time from chasing things. I do not feed live no more cos they can not catch anything in the big setting (or at least have difficulties) - to slow compared to paimas. No qualm about large prey like big frogs (paimas do not like large things).
PS: mine jumped out of the aquarium once - did not die (maid was alerted by the dog). I dropped the biggest one during the moving from aquarium to the outdoor set-up - does not seem affected
