Odd... Gar and pellets?

[brich999]

Ok I think this is kinda odd. I have a 500g tank with a 22" RTCxTSN and a 14" regular gar. My catfish eats massivore and my gar eats gut loaded feeders. Last night I saw my tank(in the basement) a while after I fed my fish. My gar was slowly moving toward a group of feeders eating a left over massivore pellet and i stayed to watch him eat. As he got closer, he didn't strike any fish but instead sank to the bottom and ate the leftover pellet. Now I have had him for like 3 months and he never shows any interest in pellets when I throw them in, but it seems he eats leftovers later. I'm excited and confused, because I've heard gars are super tough to get on pellets, how do i get him to take them more aggressively? Right now he's just eating scraps i guess but hey its a good start and i didn't even have to try

 

[xander]

congrats on the easy conversion

 

[brich999]

Lol thanks, I wasn't even going to try till I got more tank mates because they usually take food easier when there is competition

 

[Polypterus]

I'm excited and confused, because I've heard gars are super tough to get on pellets, how do i get him to take them more aggressively?

They are not hard to get onto pellets at all in reality but for some reason people think so... I've never known of a gar that would not take pellets.

 

[Dreamsofpeace54]

mine learned to eat them from the other fish, now he is solely on pellets. stop giving him feeders and he will eat more pellets. my gar has no problem with competition for the pellets he usually gets more then the 10 bichirs do.

 

[Madding]

Same, especially the fish-cocaine that is massivore

 

[biguebs]

i have read a lot about how gars are easy to get on pellets... my spotted gar still won't take them! He wouldn't eat anything but feeders, I used the starve method (well, I didn't offer any feeders, just the pellets and shrimp chunks) for about a week and then he finally started eating shrimp. So I ended up stuffing shrimp chunks with the pellets. Now he gets proper nutrition and I can rest easy.

 

[bobtan]

i cut prawns and put the food sticks inside then recently i bought the carnisticks and put them in the tank and saw 1 of my alligator gar =D