Shortnose Gars from Journey

[xander]

been interested in their so called skittish behaviour for a long time. any chance of you guys all posting your experiences with the shortys here? things that would be great to include might be; size, number, tank specs, tankmates, decor and water movement.

maybe we could keep this thread updated and get it stickied as a shortnose gar care thread

oh and pics too

 

[King-eL]

I just wired the money to him and waiting for for mine to arrive. Hopefully all of them are alive and doing well. Plus this is probably the farthest shipment he ever had. Also they will be the first shortys to arrive here in BC. Can't wait, I'm too excited!

 

[Conner]

Well, mine (all 6 of them) are still in a growout tank. I haven't added any to my main tank yet. They're all around 7-9 inches, I think.

Here's spec's:
55g
78-79F (stays pretty hot in the room)
pH 7.4-7.5 (just straight tap with prime)
Filter: Penguin 350
Tankmates: 2 bluegill (about 3.5"), 2 green sunfish (about 3.5"), 1 sun catfish (about 5").

I also have a decent size clump of floating plants in there to provide a little cover.

Mine are doing pretty ok. They're starting to figure out when I move up to the tank, I'm probably going to be dropping in feeders. However, they are still fairly skittish. If I move up to fast, they pretty much all startle and bolt to the farthest point in the tank.

However, they seem to have absolutely no issues with their current tankmates. The bluegull and sunfish stay pretty active, and with their dominance posturing, you'd think they could startle the gar easily, but they don't.

So far mine have only eaten feeders, even though I've been trying freeze dried krill and tilapia fillet as well. One of the gar did mouth a piece of tilapia for about 2 minutes, but he eventually spit it out. I'm hoping that over the next couple weeks, they'll start taking tilapia or krill, so that I can stop buying so many feeders.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

got 2 around 8-9 inches. they are in a 125g with a 16" florida and 2 12" floridas. filtration is a fx5. temp is around 82. just added a few small plants. live. they will be gone soon though because the smaller floridas have eaten live plants before. i dont know why but they have.
They are eating feeders, all mine are. the largest gar has recently started eating shrimp as well.
They are by far the most active out of all my gars. Probably the most active gar I have ever seen. Very very skittish. A bump in the room can spook them. They spend about half the day swimming up and down against the glass. Dont know why. Also these things have a freakin attitude. A bad attitude!! I have seen them snap and attack the larger gars.

 

[Gar Master]

I just was in contact with him yesterday and he said that he was currently out of Gar but would have more this weekend.

I have heard about the shortnose "skittishness" too, but haven't heard much about it from anyone who got any of KC's shortnose, which is good news.

 

[fcamargo6thave]

I have a shortnose gar in my 90 gallon tank, with a hybrid rtc x tsn and 2 clownknifes. At first he didnt want to eat but threw in some feeders and he ate them.. for some reason all he wanted to eat was feeders but i had to starve him so he can accept krill.. So now krill is his main diet, the water stay aroun 78-82 degrees and the ph from 7.4- 7.8 . at first all he did is swim at the top and now he goes all over the tank. I also have a 4 inch alligator gar which has beautiful color.. When u have these two guys next to each other u can appreciate the beauty of the alligator gar. But the shortnose is also a beautiful fish i will post pics of both

 

[Conner]

They spend about half the day swimming up and down against the glass.

Several of mine do this as well, but some of the others don't. They might swim around actively when chasing feeders, or if they get spooked, but a couple of them are just as sedate as my Florida's are. Interesting to see both behaviors from the same species in the same tank. They can get a little snappy with each other if they're competing for a feeder, but other than that I haven't noticed any real aggression between gar.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

mine are highly aggressive and extremely hyper compared to my floridas. not even close. they will only swim at the glass for a few hours of the day. most of the time they are chasing something. feeder, or other gar. lol. they will even snap at gary. gary is my 16" probably well over 2lbs(not sure but its an estimate). He is huge. they are relentlous. i love them! one is develouping almost no pattern, while the other is develouping a really nice pattern. and my 2 floridas are also gaining a nice pattern now days. ill keep yal updated

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

they r settling in. less skittish, but still highly active. and still got a heck of an attitude. anyone else's like this?

 

[Conner]

Mine are very active. The don't seem to stop swimming, even after the lights are out. They don't seem to have too much of an attitude, although it is definitely more attitude than my Florida gars. They do have some serious competition when it comes to food though (they try to steal feeders from each other all the time, and even succeed occasionally).