sex?

[E_americanus]

how was the sex of you gar determined?

if these were observed in the wild, it would be pretty clear that the smaller more numerous individuals attending to one larger one would be males to the one female...this is well-established with all gar species and readily available in the literature as well--
--solomon

ps-- definitely would be a cool thing to see with gators in the wild!

 

[Vicious_Fish]

My florida gar loves to swim with my albino red oscar. He/she follow him around everywhere in the tank. That would be a most interesting hybrid if it could occur.

 

[Bsixxx]

that is peculiar behavior...gars will often times nip each other, but not necessarily in the way you are describing. how big is the bigger gar, and how long have you had it, and do you have any idea how long the store/previous owner had it before it came to you?

also, if you could get video of this behavior, it would help us figure out if it's indeed typical gar behavior or potentially something else. well described on those details --
--solomon

the bigger one is 14.5" and the smaller one is 11"

i wish i could get a video but they only do it with the lights of or really dim, theres a light outside my garage and it shines in to the tank and you can see he fish but if i try to get a vid its too dark or if i turn a light on they stop. so its really hard to see them in action

 

[E_americanus]

the bigger one is 14.5" and the smaller one is 11"

i wish i could get a video but they only do it with the lights of or really dim, theres a light outside my garage and it shines in to the tank and you can see he fish but if i try to get a vid its too dark or if i turn a light on they stop. so its really hard to see them in action

without getting video footage or night-vision type photos, it's hard to know exactly what you are seeing, but richard and i looked at this post while on a gar fishing trip over the weekend, and after looking at the fishes that are in the tank with the gars, it's very very unlikely they would be spawning or showing that behavior. he's seen similar behavior in gars before, and given the tankmate situation, i'd agree that it's just variations on gar social/dominance behavior--
--solomon