Natural habitat tank setup: Gar´s
- Thread starter Land Rover
- Start date
Land Rover;4394237; said:
agreed, i too enjoy my tanks more when they're aquascaped nicely. however there's more to keeping gar than having a pretty tank. asides from aquarium basics, there are several "gar basics". and then there probably are several more advanced husbandry protocols that i'm hope peje (i typed poly first, then perun, then finally remembered peje...) could shed some light on.
I will film a video this weekend of gars in their natural habbit in the florida everglades. It will give all of you the best ideas on how to naturaly create the gars enviroment in your tanks. Thanks, John
we all should keep in mind, however, that "natural" setups aren't always necessarily practical or appealing in terms of their re-creation and maintenance in the home aquaria.
while some spotted gar populations and most Florida gars come from relatively clear waters, like the clear water we like to maintain in aquaria, many other gar species/populations do not come from such waters...and i think we'd hardly like to replicate them in the home aquaria.
shortnose gars, for example often come from muddy rivers where the water looks like chocolate milk...who wants to have a completely opaque and murky aquarium just so the shortnose habitat is as "natural" as possible? most spotted gars come from turbid and murky rivers, bayous, and swamps...again, not practical to replicate in the home aquaria. the biggest gator gars come from waters you can't even see through, and longnoses are found in a wide variety of habitats, most not reproducible in the home aquaria.
we need to face the fact that a glass or plastic box is NOT a gar's natural habitat, and although we can do some things to make it LOOK like it, we'll never fully (or even mostly) replicate it. going for a practical set up that functionally keeps the gars healthy is the best we can do, unless you work at a public aquarium or have a huge pond (even then, there are many limitations compared to their wild habitat).
ideally a gar setup will have minimal obstruction so they can swim or cruise unimpeded through our (comparative to the wild) small tanks. overhead cover is good so they can feel a bit more secure. as much width as you can give them, and as high of water quality as possible (good filtration, regular large water changes). also reducing the amount of activity outside the tank that would cause them to spook...let's face it, gars are not naturally exposed to the same kind of constant lateral antagonism as they get in aquaria.--
--solomon
while some spotted gar populations and most Florida gars come from relatively clear waters, like the clear water we like to maintain in aquaria, many other gar species/populations do not come from such waters...and i think we'd hardly like to replicate them in the home aquaria.
shortnose gars, for example often come from muddy rivers where the water looks like chocolate milk...who wants to have a completely opaque and murky aquarium just so the shortnose habitat is as "natural" as possible? most spotted gars come from turbid and murky rivers, bayous, and swamps...again, not practical to replicate in the home aquaria. the biggest gator gars come from waters you can't even see through, and longnoses are found in a wide variety of habitats, most not reproducible in the home aquaria.
we need to face the fact that a glass or plastic box is NOT a gar's natural habitat, and although we can do some things to make it LOOK like it, we'll never fully (or even mostly) replicate it. going for a practical set up that functionally keeps the gars healthy is the best we can do, unless you work at a public aquarium or have a huge pond (even then, there are many limitations compared to their wild habitat).
ideally a gar setup will have minimal obstruction so they can swim or cruise unimpeded through our (comparative to the wild) small tanks. overhead cover is good so they can feel a bit more secure. as much width as you can give them, and as high of water quality as possible (good filtration, regular large water changes). also reducing the amount of activity outside the tank that would cause them to spook...let's face it, gars are not naturally exposed to the same kind of constant lateral antagonism as they get in aquaria.--
--solomon
xander;4394597; said:
As always well spoken. Ofcourse I agree and sorry if I soundet harsh nut i firmly belive that taken issues like this up will increase the standart for the tanks
That said there needs to be some logic and common sence behind the idea and a nice tank setup is not the final issue but just a standard that we whit pride and joy can show off to our Gar-boddy´s here and live
snookn21;4394604; said:
This is great John, looking forward to this. I was on a daytrip in the glades some years back. This is a very nice swamp area.
See now it is getting exithing
E_americanus;4394829; said:
Wery good answer Solomon. I fully agree and know what you mean. It is also to the degree of extent we can provide and care for the gars that we love. All aquarium hobbyfish has the same problem but anyway we do our best to give the fish/gars ect. the highest possible living standard that we can. That said I think that tank setups, size, filtration and all the other things you mention is an important factor and this is why I made this thread.
Some may thing that I made it to complaine, this is not the case. I just want to raise the standard in the future.
Good debate all
these couple of days my new ray has really been messing w the substrate & it's been fogging up the tank like crazy. interestingly enough though, the gars patterns look much better compared to when the water was clear. wish i could keep it that way
again, nice write up
again, nice write up
E_americanus;4394829; said:
