Alright. My 9 inch Florida gar is putting up a good fight. He won't take the beef heart the Bichir and bass take it all day. He does seem to get excited when I bring if out he doesn't bite or anything he is tame I can touch him when he sits at the top. He just slowly slides though my hand . I have tired leading him , big pieces small . Med . The smell kinda gets to to come near it nothing else. It's about 3 weeks now
trouble getting the gar off live
- Thread starter mike1987
- Start date
Have you tried frozen siversides? Try soaking them in Entice I think seachem makes its, Ive used it to get gars and other predatory fish onto silversides. My gar went straight from live to freeze dried krill to pellets. You just have to play around and see what he'll eat. Don't feed him for a few days at a time.
Try something with real meat like frozen krill (not freeze-dried).
If the gar won't touch it, try safely tying it to something like thread or line and bob it up and down off of the gars snout. Make sure to bonk the fish a couple of times. Usually they'll get irritated and grab it.
If the gar won't touch it, try safely tying it to something like thread or line and bob it up and down off of the gars snout. Make sure to bonk the fish a couple of times. Usually they'll get irritated and grab it.
Mine was stubborn, and then one night I noticed him prowling all weird, now he will only eat massivore off the bottom. Kinda weird
It took me a month with my new Gar, i just tried cichlid gold floating pellets(the large ones). just kept putting in every other day for a month, until he finally gave in and now eats anything from massivore to frozen shrimp. with my other younger gar, i used the arowana pellets. just be persistent, and he will give in.
You can always try the wooden skewer and market fish method. Cut the fish fillet into the general shape of a feeder. This has usually worked for me within a week for the gars that I have kept. I have had only a couple of gar that resisted going of live (and none of them survived!). You have to be persistant and patient.
I have to agree with Madding on the "bonk" method, but I usually result to the "bonk" as second effort. First I like to do the wooden skewer and market fish.
Keys to initial fillet taking (!IMO!) are:
1. making the shape as similar to a prey fish as possible (smell is aleady there!).
2. Position of the meat on the stick to "emulate" a small prey fish similar to "live lining". (Stick where hook would be near "imaginary" dorsal fin).
3. End of meat on stick able to wave (Emulate tail swimming).
This usually works if you are patient and make these meat chunck look like they are "swiming" around your gar. The bonk can then be applied to those "ignoring" the offering. Even if the response was an angry last out from the bonk, as long as the gar takes the meat, you are well on your way!
I have to agree with Madding on the "bonk" method, but I usually result to the "bonk" as second effort. First I like to do the wooden skewer and market fish.
Keys to initial fillet taking (!IMO!) are:
1. making the shape as similar to a prey fish as possible (smell is aleady there!).
2. Position of the meat on the stick to "emulate" a small prey fish similar to "live lining". (Stick where hook would be near "imaginary" dorsal fin).
3. End of meat on stick able to wave (Emulate tail swimming).
This usually works if you are patient and make these meat chunck look like they are "swiming" around your gar. The bonk can then be applied to those "ignoring" the offering. Even if the response was an angry last out from the bonk, as long as the gar takes the meat, you are well on your way!
In all my experience, once the gar takes that first piece, they don't forget it as a food source again. So keep up your efforts, because you'll only have to do it once.
You are dealing with a smaller gar, though, so make sure it eats eventually.
You are dealing with a smaller gar, though, so make sure it eats eventually.
I just took a small thin piece of fish fillet and swished it around at the top of the aquarium in order to switch the longnose gar that Madding now has to feed on fish fillets; I did the same thing for my one previous Florida gar. My previous Cuban gar was already pretty well pellet trained when I got it, and the other gars in its aquarium seem to have learned from it and now take pellets, too. My three small alligator gars all take pellets at least occasionally; the smallest one started taking them the first try while the other two started to take them after I used live crickets to entice them to feed at the surface.