Store bought vs. wild

[Leebtattoos]

What are some of the advantages vs disadvantages.

I live in Texas and have a line on a place that's apparently covered up in small gar. I haven't been yet so unclear on species. Besides obvious disease issues and such of wild, what are other cons? Also, me being new to gar, there is always the mis-identifying of young gar, though I feel I can spot the differences fairly well from all the info on here.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Lee

 

[Mount_Prion]

Not sure if this is exactly what you're asking but one other disadvantage to WC (wild caught) fish is that they are sometimes harder to train to eat non-live food, and they can potentially be more sensitive to water changes and conditions than fish that have spent their whole lives in tanks.

Of course "store bought" fish might well be wild caught too, with many species they probably are. The only type of gar you're likely to find that was tank/farm raised are floridas, although there are people out there breeding others.

Hope this helps!

 

[Adamrhh]

A lot of SW fish are wild caught .

 

[Leebtattoos]

Thanks Mount. Yeah I figured that was the case. Just being new to the gar family, I wanted to make sure there are no huge disadvantages to wild specimen.

They will be the only fish in the aquarium so transfer of parasites/disease is not a huge concern

 

[fwprawn]

Could you post some photos ? Some people on here are real experts, and can ID them for you.

 

[Leebtattoos]

I'll post when I have them. I'm going next week. Haven't seen them yet

 

[pharmaecopia]

I would go for wild caught personally. With smaller gars you probably won't find that much of a difference in switching to prepared foods provided you follow what is in the stickies in the gar forum. I have personally seen quite a few deformities from captive bred floridas. Of the gars that are captive bred in the hobby it is floridas, gators, cubans and tropicals.

Living in texas you also have access to spotted gars, something very few gar hobbyists have.

 

[Rome]

Most fish I would rather have captive bred. My wild caught dovii won't eat pellets until he is dying of hunger and still spits 1/3 of it out after 3 months.


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[pharmaecopia]

About 25% of my gars are wild caught. There is little to no difference in switching to prepared foods between the wild caught and farm raised ones.