New Gar today, unfortunately might have chlorine poisoning

[KillaFish]

Greetings monsterfish keepers, I obtained a baby 4 inch gar that is roughly 2-3 months of age from a fish store. Unfortunately, I got the fish at approximately 1 pm and came home right now at 11 pm, a total of 10 hours. The fish was temporarily held in a small 8x3 plastic container provided by the petstore. Unfortunately, I had not realized that he used tap water and that my gar, I believe it is either a spotted, longnose, or florida gar, has been exposed to chlorinated water for 10+ hours. After I got home, I immediately transferred him to a temporary pond where the water has been left standing and aerated for 24 hours (to dechlorinate it). He seems to be doing well, but his color is still pale and his gills a bit red and inflamed. However, he has eaten for me. Here is another thread that I started containing pics.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=347681

does anyone know how to speed up the healing process? Thanks.

 

[jworth]

Greetings monsterfish keepers, I obtained a baby 4 inch gar that is roughly 2-3 months of age from a fish store. Unfortunately, I got the fish at approximately 1 pm and came home right now at 11 pm, a total of 10 hours. The fish was temporarily held in a small 8x3 plastic container provided by the petstore. Unfortunately, I had not realized that he used tap water and that my gar, I believe it is either a spotted, longnose, or florida gar, has been exposed to chlorinated water for 10+ hours. After I got home, I immediately transferred him to a temporary pond where the water has been left standing and aerated for 24 hours (to dechlorinate it). He seems to be doing well, but his color is still pale and his gills a bit red and inflamed. However, he has eaten for me. Here is another thread that I started containing pics.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=347681

does anyone know how to speed up the healing process? Thanks.

as I said in the other thread, treat your water with prime before adding it into ponds or tanks. It does naturally dissipate over time though. If your gar did not die when it was added to that water, then i suspect it will recover. If your fish store did not know better than that, then I would never buy another fish from there.

 

[KillaFish]

as I said in the other thread, treat your water with prime before adding it into ponds or tanks. It does naturally dissipate over time though. If your gar did not die when it was added to that water, then i suspect it will recover. If your fish store did not know better than that, then I would never buy another fish from there.

The store is actually really great and I haven't had this problem ever in the past. It is the new guy that screwed up royally. Is there a difference between water treated with prime and regular water that has been aged 24 hours? I haven't noticed any difference in the past when I kept flowerhorn cichlids.

 

[jworth]

The store is actually really great and I haven't had this problem ever in the past. It is the new guy that screwed up royally. Is there a difference between water treated with prime and regular water that has been aged 24 hours? I haven't noticed any difference in the past when I kept flowerhorn cichlids.

Not sure how long it takes chlorine to naturally dissipate, but its not worth risking our prize fish. Water treated with prime is immediately safe and does not have to be aged.

BTW, welcome to the forum and gar keeping

 

[E_americanus]

The store is actually really great and I haven't had this problem ever in the past. It is the new guy that screwed up royally. Is there a difference between water treated with prime and regular water that has been aged 24 hours? I haven't noticed any difference in the past when I kept flowerhorn cichlids.

in the future just use prime or amquel or some other dechlorinator right into the water before adding the fish (or in a partial water change before adding new water). this way you don't have to wait on aged water/aeration.

gars will flush their color at night and/or when stressed, but they can also do this for reasons we still don't fully understand. if the fish is eating i wouldn't be too concerned. in terms of the gills, it's hard to determine if they are actually damaged because gar gills are normally red...

one thing to note is if that fish is 2-3 months old it was grossly underfed. any species of gar should be 2-3" longer than that fish right now. i would make sure it has plenty of food (access almost constantly) and perform frequent water changes at 50% to get him up to size and to a more stable condition (larger gars are hardier at these stages).

give the pics, your fish is most likely a Florida gar...not a longnose or spotted or tropical gar.

good luck and keep us posted on how he's doing--
--solomon

 

[KillaFish]

in the future just use prime or amquel or some other dechlorinator right into the water before adding the fish (or in a partial water change before adding new water). this way you don't have to wait on aged water/aeration.

gars will flush their color at night and/or when stressed, but they can also do this for reasons we still don't fully understand. if the fish is eating i wouldn't be too concerned. in terms of the gills, it's hard to determine if they are actually damaged because gar gills are normally red...

one thing to note is if that fish is 2-3 months old it was grossly underfed. any species of gar should be 2-3" longer than that fish right now. i would make sure it has plenty of food (access almost constantly) and perform frequent water changes at 50% to get him up to size and to a more stable condition (larger gars are hardier at these stages).

give the pics, your fish is most likely a Florida gar...not a longnose or spotted or tropical gar.

good luck and keep us posted on how he's doing--
--solomon

Thanks Solomon, I'll keep that in mind. Btw, just out of curiosity, how resistant are Gars to chlorine? I'd really like to know since I'm starting to freak out a bit. This little guy is awesome and yeah, he is definitely a bit undersized. I noticed the fish last week and the manager, whom I've known for about 2 years, said it arrived in mid July at 2-3 inches long. The gar is estimated at a month or so in age when he got it and he's been feeding it bloodworms since he couldn't get it to eat minnows. Bloodworms aren't gonna be as feasible so I figured I'd wean him on feederfish and low and behold, he ate, even with chlorine poisoning. These fish are truly amazing.

 

[E_americanus]

Thanks Solomon, I'll keep that in mind. Btw, just out of curiosity, how resistant are Gars to chlorine? I'd really like to know since I'm starting to freak out a bit. This little guy is awesome and yeah, he is definitely a bit undersized. I noticed the fish last week and the manager, whom I've known for about 2 years, said it arrived in mid July at 2-3 inches long. The gar is estimated at a month or so in age when he got it and he's been feeding it bloodworms since he couldn't get it to eat minnows. Bloodworms aren't gonna be as feasible so I figured I'd wean him on feederfish and low and behold, he ate, even with chlorine poisoning. These fish are truly amazing.

gars at that age are pretty susceptible to water quality issues, including chlorine and ammonia, so you got lucky. i would also guess that there was probably just a small amount in the water if a gar that size survived (i've had little gars die in just a matter of minutes due to chlorine issues back in the day).

whatever feeders he is eating for you, just keep him on those until he gets big enough to take larger feeders. once the fish is 8-9" you can start experimenting with non-live foods, but until then (especially with him being a bit small for his age already), i would stick with the fish. blood worms have protein, but when gars start eating fish is when their growth really takes off.

let us know if you have further questions, and be sure to look at the pinned topics and other threads in the forum...there is definitely a large amount of info on gar-keeping that will help you (as well the members with their posts, etc) --
--solomon

 

[KillaFish]

gars at that age are pretty susceptible to water quality issues, including chlorine and ammonia, so you got lucky. i would also guess that there was probably just a small amount in the water if a gar that size survived (i've had little gars die in just a matter of minutes due to chlorine issues back in the day).

whatever feeders he is eating for you, just keep him on those until he gets big enough to take larger feeders. once the fish is 8-9" you can start experimenting with non-live foods, but until then (especially with him being a bit small for his age already), i would stick with the fish. blood worms have protein, but when gars start eating fish is when their growth really takes off.

let us know if you have further questions, and be sure to look at the pinned topics and other threads in the forum...there is definitely a large amount of info on gar-keeping that will help you (as well the members with their posts, etc) --
--solomon

Thanks Solomon, I'm glad I joined this board. Also I believe you are right about having smaller quantities of chlorine as I live in New York City. The water does not contain chloramides, only chlorine and range from .25-2.0 ppm. Though I highly doubt it was as high as 2.0 ppm. Also interms of food, I am feeding him the smallest minnows I can find, but they are all about an inch long. He can only down one. Do you think I should feed smaller prey? The store around me sells neon tetras that are around .25-.5 inches long for 65 cents a fish, but I don't mind feeding him those either.

 

[pwmin]

how's it doing? it should be able to down a lot more than one feeder at a time. My most recent acquisition, a shortnose, at 6 inches would eat 30 feeders of a similar size in a few days. It is the first gar I've had at this size, so I'm not very experienced.

 

[KillaFish]

how's it doing? it should be able to down a lot more than one feeder at a time. My most recent acquisition, a shortnose, at 6 inches would eat 30 feeders of a similar size in a few days. It is the first gar I've had at this size, so I'm not very experienced.

It is doing really well. Nah, I doubt he'd be able to eat more than just one fish that is more than 1/4 of his size. His stomach is still bloated from yesterday LOL. I'll probably introduce another feeder tonight once his stomach isn't as swollen.