Needle nose ate angelfish?

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superchar42

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 28, 2006
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Michigan, USA
So I had an overpopulation of guppies in my tank and wanted to change things up anyway, so I bought an angelfish and two needle nose gars. The guppies were dissapearing (yay!) and I knew eventually they'd take out my danios (fine by me) but was told by my LFS that they'd be fine with the angel and the swordtails as well as the green corys.

One day my angelfish dissapeared. Could the gars have eaten it? They were only about four inches at the time.

Oh, and what's the full size for a needle nose gar? I've got two in a 35 gallon tank, and was told by the LFS that they get to 9" maybe 10" but no longer. Is this true?
 
Needlenose Gars can grow to about 10-12". That 35g is definitely too small for long term tank, consider it a growout tank. As for the fish disappearing, Gars will eat anything they can fit in their mouth (and although it seems unreal with such a small mouth, they can take big prey). Therefore they should be kept only with fish their own size.

BTW, did you know that Needlenose Gars are not true gars?

Cheers!
 
You would be suprised what fish built like gars can swallow, even gars. My florida gar that is 12in can swallow fish as long as 5in, and can eat 2, so it is possible one ate you angel fish.
 
Hmm.. so needlenose just look like other gars or act like them or something?
Anyway, thanks for the response.

It's hard to understand how they could eat the angelfish but they seem to get along great with my swordtails (maybe that's until they get bigger, huh?)

What are my options for when they get too large for the tank? Do people often trade fish? I don't really want to ship them or anything.. hmm.
 
Most LFS will let you trade them in for store credit or other fish. It is true, they are not a true gar, they are a type of characin, that is very similar in appearence to a gar. They give them the gar name to help sell them better.

It doesn't seem like they could eat an angel fish, but some fish are just capable of doing some amazing things like eating huge pray.

Did you check to see it it jumped out or not, and did you check for a carcass?
 
How fast do they grow on average? I have one currently and have had it for maybe 5-6 months. It started out @ maybe 4" and it now about 6". So mine has grown pretty slow. It'll only eat a goldfish or two every couple days. I have gotten him to the point where he recognizes me and will come to the surface and stick his beak out of the water for me to feed it.
 
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