I am new to the site, so first HI! Second...HELP! I came home from work last night to find 2 "new" fish added to my 55 gallon tank from a well meaning friend of my husband's. I did not want new fish, I am sort of stuck now so I need some help. The new "guy" that bothers me the most is a green long nose gar, which certain type I have no clue. He is at least 7 inches long. Problem is I am used to seeing them in lakes, not tanks and I am worried about him staying alive in my tank of chilads, one of whom is a big (5.5 inch) african red who is a momma's boy...he will eat from my fingers. He is also the "king" of the tank and pretty much spends his day chasing the smaller chilads around or the bottom feeders. Should I move the gar? I have a 12 gallon in my office at work, but I think it is too small for him (I have flame dwarf gourmai's). I do have a 20 gallon I was going to set up in my bedroom, would he be ok in there? And does he need floating plants to lurk in? I have found no decent research online for this fish, other than he eats live fish (don't think the chilads are small enough) and that pleco's are a bad tank mate (well I have one!). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Please Help
- Thread starter obxbabyinwis
- Start date
obxbabyinwis;1125811; said:
welcome to MFK.
first off...we need pics of the fish to confirm if it is a true gar and if so...what species. the situation does not sound good if it is in fact a gar. the cichlids will terrorize him and the 12 wont last him long at all. although it would make an appropriate growout tank for a short time.
anyway...pics please.
that longnose would grow to abt 3'.so no, a 12 g is WAY too small. gars gererally do not do well with cichlids due to the latters aggressive nature and plecos have a tendancy to suck the slime coat off the gars, essentially killing them. gars are top level swimmers and appreciate floating plants. small fishes that can fit into it's mouth can and will be considered as food. post a pic for us or something, as for decent research on the fish, www.aquaticpredators.com is pretty much the best site there is.(sorry for uh, advertising another site on mfk)
I am at work so unable to take his pic right now, but he is similar to a silver gar, just green in color. I can have a pic done tonight then post tomorrow. I will most likely go ahead and set up the 20 gallon this weekend so I can get the water stablized in anticapation of moving him to a safer envirionment.
demjor19;1125910; said:
would be great if this were 100% the case (i.e. risk eliminated) but unfortunately it's not...the overall purpose of doing this is sound, but it doesn't completely eliminated the chances of this from happening (brooklamprey and myself have had this happen even when just about all feasible measures are made).
that being said, in most cases, it is indeed better to have smaller gars in smaller tanks and grow them out (increase tank size in a step-wise fashion). the issues of when to transition them is still quite the gray area at this point, and it is also somewhat species-dependent.
just some details to add to the concept
----solomon
E_americanus;1126776; said:would be great if this were 100% the case (i.e. risk eliminated) but unfortunately it's not...the overall purpose of doing this is sound, but it doesn't completely eliminated the chances of this from happening (brooklamprey and myself have had this happen even when just about all feasible measures are made).
that being said, in most cases, it is indeed better to have smaller gars in smaller tanks and grow them out (increase tank size in a step-wise fashion). the issues of when to transition them is still quite the gray area at this point, and it is also somewhat species-dependent.
just some details to add to the concept
--solomon
that's why i said "helps eliminate"...def. still possible, but less likely. when i introduce them to a new larger tank, i do so under the calmest conditions to try and avoid fright. so far it has worked 100% for me (knock on wood).
demjor19;1127023; said:
don't worry, i wasn't knocking your position on the issue, just explaining that nothing can eliminate this issue with keeping gars in captivity. i was at the steinhart aquarium last week and of their ~17 big gator gars, at least one of them also had a pretty distinct back injury. just an unfortunate risk of keeping this group of fishes.
pehaps 'helps lessen' is the appropriate wording, as it's too bad nothing short of leaving them in the wild helps eliminate the possibility
----solomon
I'm not even sure that is the case as I've seen longnosed in the wild that clearly suffered a back injury. I agree when to transition tanks is very gray and species dependent. It often is just a matter of experience and observation in these fish and may be individual in just how and when to do so.
In general this practice (Step tank housing) is the best overall precaution one can take to this ever present issue and problem.