Stunted Florida Gar question......

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glyconny

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 24, 2008
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Chicago
I saw an ad in a local paper for a Florida Gar for sale, and decided to check it out yesterday. I don't own any gars, but have done a small amount of research on them. When I got there I see a nice looking Gar in a 55 gallon tank. He's about 11-12 inches and I figured that the seller is trying to get rid of an animal he hadn't anticicapated getting as large as he has. But after talking to the guy, he claims that he's had the Fish for about 3 years and got it from a fairly reputable distributor as a 6 incher, and shows me a progression of pictures showing growth progress. He claims that the fish has not grown appreciably in the last year, and that he thinks it is as big as it gets. Is it possible that the fact that this animal has been confined to a 55 has lead it to be stunted to this degree? And is 12" unheard of for an adult florida gar?
The price was right, and I told him i'd get back to him today. I have a 125 with a 9" senegal bichir, and 8" red bay snook, have not had any aggression issues with either. Can you foresee a possible problem with this mix? Thanks for the help folks.
 
glyconny;2483388; said:
I saw an ad in a local paper for a Florida Gar for sale, and decided to check it out yesterday. I don't own any gars, but have done a small amount of research on them. When I got there I see a nice looking Gar in a 55 gallon tank. He's about 11-12 inches and I figured that the seller is trying to get rid of an animal he hadn't anticicapated getting as large as he has. But after talking to the guy, he claims that he's had the Fish for about 3 years and got it from a fairly reputable distributor as a 6 incher, and shows me a progression of pictures showing growth progress. He claims that the fish has not grown appreciably in the last year, and that he thinks it is as big as it gets. Is it possible that the fact that this animal has been confined to a 55 has lead it to be stunted to this degree? And is 12" unheard of for an adult florida gar?
The price was right, and I told him i'd get back to him today. I have a 125 with a 9" senegal bichir, and 8" red bay snook, have not had any aggression issues with either. Can you foresee a possible problem with this mix? Thanks for the help folks.
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i've never kept snook, but i know the gar should get along with the bichir in most cases. the gar will likely not grow much bigger since it's definitely stunted...a 12" Florida gar in the wild at 3 years would be an extreme outlier and probably would have died off due to predation or even first-year overwinter issues (depending on where in Florida).

all that being said, it should likely be fine in the tank provided it gets along with the snook--
--solomon
 
first off, always sorry to hear about a stunted gar.

and i agree w sol, the fish is unlikely to have any more growth

about the stunting, here're a couple of reasons asides from the tanksize. we keep them in small bodies of water, and no matter how well you filter the tank or how often you do changes, you will not be able to replicate the quality of water found in the wild in the wild, the fish also do not get to feed on quality foods, as and when they wish, unlike in the wild. in this case, it's obvious that tanksize was a major issue in the fish's stunting, although i am positive that the water quality and diet were also poor. the fish will be fine w the senegal, although i don't know what a snook is. sounds like an aggressive cichlid(based purely on intuition), in which case aggression would be an issue.

ps--about the stunting, correct me if i'm wrong. i'm pretty sure i got it right, but hey, who am i to talk
 
xander13;2483455; said:
first off, always sorry to hear about a stunted gar.

and i agree w sol, the fish is unlikely to have any more growth

about the stunting, here're a couple of reasons asides from the tanksize. we keep them in small bodies of water, and no matter how well you filter the tank or how often you do changes, you will not be able to replicate the quality of water found in the wild in the wild, the fish also do not get to feed on quality foods, as and when they wish, unlike in the wild. in this case, it's obvious that tanksize was a major issue in the fish's stunting, although i am positive that the water quality and diet were also poor. the fish will be fine w the senegal, although i don't know what a snook is. sounds like an aggressive cichlid(based purely on intuition), in which case aggression would be an issue.

ps--about the stunting, correct me if i'm wrong. i'm pretty sure i got it right, but hey, who am i to talk
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the gist of your stunting explanation is sound...although in most cases one can summarize and correlate all those issues with tank size (concentration of toxins, metabolites, etc). feed quality can definitely be an issue, but it likely more an amount of ration and then tank size/growth than nutrition as gars can grow quite large and fast on readily available fish in captivity.--
--solomon
 
Thanks for the reply folks. The guy who is selling this gar was well meaning, but uninformed. He cares for his pet, and takes pride in him, the first thing he wanted to do was show me what a great eater he was, and I suspect he did this everytime someone came over. He feeds him large Hikari Cichlid pellets and occasionaly silversides, and pinky mice. The tank was in great shape and the fish was active and alert. I asked him what he attributed the small size of his fish to, and he replied something I'm sure we've all heard before, "I bought the fish not knowing what I was getting really". He continued, "But the fish has not suffered because of his meager surroundings, he's in great shape and thriving". I didn't feel like pursuing the matter anymore, as doing so, would've lead to a disagreement. The fact is when a fish only grows to half of what it should, then it is not thriving, despite great eating, and tank maintainance, it's just not right. All that being said, I still think I'm going to bring this guy home, as I've decided that 125g is too small for a "regular sized" Florida Gar. Has anyone else heard of such stunting before, and should I be concerned about any other health issues that would be symptomatic of this? Thank again.
 
glyconny;2484529; said:
Thanks for the reply folks. The guy who is selling this gar was well meaning, but uninformed. He cares for his pet, and takes pride in him, the first thing he wanted to do was show me what a great eater he was, and I suspect he did this everytime someone came over. He feeds him large Hikari Cichlid pellets and occasionaly silversides, and pinky mice. The tank was in great shape and the fish was active and alert. I asked him what he attributed the small size of his fish to, and he replied something I'm sure we've all heard before, "I bought the fish not knowing what I was getting really". He continued, "But the fish has not suffered because of his meager surroundings, he's in great shape and thriving". I didn't feel like pursuing the matter anymore, as doing so, would've lead to a disagreement. The fact is when a fish only grows to half of what it should, then it is not thriving, despite great eating, and tank maintainance, it's just not right. All that being said, I still think I'm going to bring this guy home, as I've decided that 125g is too small for a "regular sized" Florida Gar. Has anyone else heard of such stunting before, and should I be concerned about any other health issues that would be symptomatic of this? Thank again.
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ive seen fish,not gars,stunted at less than half their adult size and never grow before.
one of them was a 8 inch WAL that stayed that size in the lfs for pretty long and never grew in my care.
 
just because it's a stunted fish doesn't mean it's a bad looking fish. If you like it then buy it. Heck if the price was right I would buy it. Yes, gar will be fine with snooks and bichirs.
 
I agree with xander. I have two Floridas, and one of them I adopted only has one eye. He gets less food as a result, because he competes with Fluffy, our other gar. I have not noticed near the amount of growth over a year in Lucky as I have in Fluffy, my gar with two eyes. Fluffy has grown so much (from 11 inches to 15 inches) this year that we're moving everyone into a 180 for comfort. So, yes, there is an issue with tank size, but since both of my guys are in the 125 right now, I'd say food availablity (which also is factored by tankmates, even if your gar has both eyes) is an issue. However, he is a good size, for his length, and has grown somewhat, just not near as quickly as Fluffy has grown. Unfortunately, Lucky the one-eyed gar refuses all food except for feeders, so it's impossible to feed him extra. If you had a gar which accpepted other foods, you could offer those to him on a feeding stick or tongs and ensure he got all of the right foods in the right amounts, no matter his tankmates.
 
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