New Gar swimming abnormally

[lingi]

First ever gar, had him for just a couple pf hours. He looked fine to me at the LFS but the way the shopkeeper netted and bagged him was a complete disaster. Is it injured? If so is there any chance of a full recovery? Should I consider euthanising? I am not liking how he’s swimming at all unfortunately…

Video I just took of the potentially injured gar

Also can I get confirmation that this is a a Florida or a Spotted?

Thanks guys!

 

[Hao]

That's a Florida gar. The fish does not look injured; just looks extremely stressed out (from how its glass surfing).

 

[lingi]

That's a Florida gar. The fish does not look injured; just looks extremely stressed out (from how its glass surfing).

Thanks for the ID. At first I was very sceptical of your claim but I'm now convinced you were right since he's more or less fine most of the time. I guess they're just really clumsy swimmers, it's like he's trying to figure out how his fins work a lot of the time. I found it strange that he would be stressed since no fish in the tank was harassing him whatsoever. Now I just need to get him to eat since he's made zero attempts to even touch any food since I've got him. The store had him on feeders but I definitely want to break him off them.

 

[lingi]

I'll post an update here instead of making a new thread:

I admit I panicked and misjudged its behaviour, the gar was apparently never injured and has been swimming fine ever since, I guess it just needed some time to settle in. He looks comfortable in the tank and gets along great with all the other fish. The problem is it's not eating at all.. so I'm coming to you all for some advice because I don't know what else to try at this point.

I feed everyday as normal, I rotate between: carnivore pellets, frozen clams, frozen shrimp, live earthworms, & mealworms. The gar has been in the tank 2 weeks now and not even once has it shown any interest in food let alone attempt to eat anything. I've shoved food in its face using feeding tongs and it just turns away... The other day I dropped some feeder guppies (which is something I don't really like to do often) and they were all gone before the gar even reacted, so I can't say if he was eventually going to attempt to eat some live feeder fish or not.

I don't know what else to do, it just won't eat. Going to try some frozen lake smelt tonight, but other than that I'm really out of options. Is this normal and what else should I try? I've had stubborn fish before but 2 weeks is a bit excessive I feel now. The gar otherwise looks and behaves totally fine, quite active actually, pushing 9"