Thinking about a tropical gar, will this work?

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Z

Zeppelin3k

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 3, 2006
2,120
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Appleton, WI
I was thinking about getting a tropical gar in my 180, could he live in there for life?

the stock list will be

2 widebars dats
4 polys, senegulas, 2 ornate, endli
group of clown loachs
2 clown knifes
possibly a motoro ray
rope eel
tire track eel
fire eel

all in a 180, what do you think?
 
thoes eels are going to be a snack, and 180 is pretty small especially for all thoes fish. its small for one gar.
 
all i want is one gar, the tire track and fire eel with be a foot and a half b4 i got a tropical gar

what do the tropicals max out at in size?
 
That tank would be fine for life minus the gar and the motoro. I think tropical gar grow to around 40" which is small by gar standards but still huge. CSX from H20 Aquatics was going to post a pic of his which is 30"
 
Zeppelin3k;891565; said:
ohh i didnt know that they got that big, and from what i hear a motoro would do fine for life in a 180
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If it is a standard 24" wide 180 in my opinion it is not wide enough. Motoros can exceed a 22" disk size so even when the ray is just laying on the ground not moving it would be nearly touching both sides of the tank. It could probably do well for a while in a 180 and I'm sure people have kept them alive in a 180 for a long time. I will soon be getting some rays that will reach bout the same adult size as motoros and they will be going in a 30" wide tank and then eventually into either an 8' diameter pool or a tank that is 48" wide. These are just my opinions I am sure others would say different.
 
Tropical gars will max out at about 30" in home aquarium, but thats a 10 year old gar. In 180 should be ok for few years. I am getting pics of larger tropical gars tomorrow and will post.
 
in terms of just the tropical gar, a 180g will be fine for a long time. i wouldn't put a small t-gar right into a 180g, but grow it out in a smaller tank and move it through larger enclosures step-wise. this will greatly reduce the back-breaking phenomenon that gars go through when their tanks are actually 'too large' for them when the fish is too small.

t-gars raised in captivity grow relatively quickly to 10-14" and then slow down drastically. it will take years for it to outgrow a 180g tank. as for the other tankmates, those will provide some problems as the CK's will outgrow the tank sooner than the gar will (just as an example) --
--solomon
 
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