Update on our family!

[hera]

Some of you may remember me from my posts in January. We had been dealing with a problem between our catfish and gars, when the catfish were "cleaning" the gars too much. We also then had a very traumatic incident when our bigger gar jumped out of the tank and died. We still miss "him" dearly. His partner, it turns out, missed (misses?) him dearly too. "She" was pretty inactive for the few months she was alone. She also seemed to be looking all over the tank for him. It was quite sad to watch.

Then one day, we got a call informing us that our new gars had come in. From the moment they were put into the tank, she got very excited and active, chasing them and nudging them with her nose...and wrapping herself around them like a snake. She didnt leave them alone for at least a couple of days. When we first tried to feed them shrimp pieces they didnt know what we were doing so they weren't going for them, just sorta sitting at the bottom of the tank..so she would go down underneath them and push them upwards toward the floating shrimp piece until they finally clued in and started eating. Now of course its every gar for themselves, hehe. They are all very healthy and "happy", and well fed with a really nice tank to live in.

In this picture, the one with only part of the body in the shot is the original gar. the other 2 are the new guys.

In this pic, the one on the right is the original gar.

The new guys have grown quite a bit since these pics. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this message and check out the pics!

Cheers all!

Hera

 

[demjor19]

very nice! good to see youre sticking with it!

 

[Rbacchiega]

great looking tank... what size is it? how big are those gar?

 

[hera]

the tank is 130 gallon and the big gar is about 14" while the new ones are about 12". Kinda hard to tell if those measurements are accurate cuz i basically just held a measuring tape up to the glass So give or take an inch or so! We actually also were offered a pair of 18" gars, but the tank is too small for them AND the 3 we have now plus the 18" ones would probably try to eat the ones we have now! Oh yeah and the guy wanted FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the pair!! Holy.

Thanks for the compliment on the tank, it sure has gone through a lot of changes since the new year began...

 

[demjor19]

the tank is 130 gallon and the big gar is about 14" while the new ones are about 12". Kinda hard to tell if those measurements are accurate cuz i basically just held a measuring tape up to the glass So give or take an inch or so! We actually also were offered a pair of 18" gars, but the tank is too small for them AND the 3 we have now plus they 18" ones would probably try to eat the ones we have now! Oh yeah and the guy wanted FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS for the pair!! Holy.

Thanks for the compliment on the tank, it sure has gone through a lot of changes since the new year began...

just a thought...if the 18" gar was too big for your tank, you dont think these ones are going to be? they will surely hit 18+ inches. also the larger gars and the smaller gars would have been fine together. i used to keep a 12" florida in with my larger ones 16-18 inches and the smaller one was actually the aggressor most of the time...nothing major though. anyway...they shouldnt reach the 18" mark for a little while, so you have some time to plan a larger tank.

 

[hera]

uh oh...we dont have room for a larger tank!! The original gar is 20 years old so i kinda dont think "she" will grow any more..she has possibly grown a bit since the big guy died but its hard to tell without him to compare her to.... i suppose we will just have to wait and see. We thought the 18" ones would be too big cuz there were 2 PLUS we already had 3...if we didnt have any we may have felt the tank was big enough..i dunno. So if these ones grow that big hopefully there is enough room. I'm very new to this fishkeeping thing, this tank actually "belongs" to my boyfriend who has been keeping fish for well, at least 20 years! hehe. So i just basically know what he tells me.

 

[xander]

love the tankscape, nice! do the gars lie on the plants?

 

[demjor19]

uh oh...we dont have room for a larger tank!! The original gar is 20 years old so i kinda dont think "she" will grow any more..she has possibly grown a bit since the big guy died but its hard to tell without him to compare her to.... i suppose we will just have to wait and see. We thought the 18" ones would be too big cuz there were 2 PLUS we already had 3...if we didnt have any we may have felt the tank was big enough..i dunno. So if these ones grow that big hopefully there is enough room. I'm very new to this fishkeeping thing, this tank actually "belongs" to my boyfriend who has been keeping fish for well, at least 20 years! hehe. So i just basically know what he tells me.

i wouldnt sweat it quite yet, but i do have one that's at 18" and two approaching 18". at this size there growth is extremely slow though. i just would'nt expect them to fit that tank forever, all fish are different though, so who knows...

 

[channarox]

nice,
all the gars look spectacular.

 

[hera]

they spend a lot of time hiding in the "grass" at the bottom, or they pretend to be a leaf by sitting alongside one...they also hide in the tall stuff on the right side of the tank (one is in there stalking kribenses right now!) All of the plantlife is much more full now than it was when the pic was taken, so they have lots of cover for ambushing. The kribenses are not meant to be food, but sometimes that happens...but they are breeding machines so some of them are 5th or 6th generation born and raised in that tank and know of the dangers lurking. There are also 4 plecostomus which the gars try to eat sometimes. Until about a month ago there was one remaining baby Jack Dempsey but unless he's hiding in a cave i think he became someone's dinner.