Hi all,
I am in need of advice. I ordered ten baby LNG (all under 3") a couple months ago. Long story short (details within other Gar posts) I lost all but one of them for various reasons.
I had the nine that died in much larger tanks, and predation was the main cause of loss. Out of desperation I managed to save one baby LNG by putting it in a tiny grow out tank (20 gallon long) with extremely small or peaceful tank mates. A baby ghost knife ~ 3", around a dozen baby black catfish (all well under 1"!) and four baby clown loaches (all well under 2") and a young silver dollar ~ 2".
I could not get the baby LNG to eat small red rosey minnows. The only tank mate that ate any of them at all was the baby ghost knife. The feeders lasted weeks until finally being picked off one by one by the knife.
I was almost relieved when the LNG devoured a baby catfish when I was concerned about starvation. Within a couple of days the baby LNG had devoured every single baby catfish. It still however would not show any interest in minnows, ghost shrimp, frozen krill or tiny pieces of cut fish meat.
I decided to try some micro color pellets (floating) and some African cichlid attack small sinking pellet for the baby loaches and possibly for the silver dollar (w/ red fins).
It came to me as a shock that the baby LNG ate every single floating color pellet.
I have repeatedly gone back to this well, and the baby LNG has never failed to devour the floating micro color pellets continuously until all pellets were gone. I am now putting in around a dozen or so larger (small) floating color pellets per feeding (twice a day). Since starting on pellets, it has increased its size to around 5" in this past month.
I have never had any other gar show any interest in pellet food! Is this unhealthy for it even though it is growing quickly now. Ultimately I would have eventually liked to wean the gar off of live feeders (which I still have not gotten it to take outside of the catfish that were not intended as food). Should I continue to attempt to introduce live feeders with its diet since it eats pellets so readily, or should I just keep trying thawed aqua meats to supplement the pellets? Thanks in advance for any advice.
I am in need of advice. I ordered ten baby LNG (all under 3") a couple months ago. Long story short (details within other Gar posts) I lost all but one of them for various reasons.
I had the nine that died in much larger tanks, and predation was the main cause of loss. Out of desperation I managed to save one baby LNG by putting it in a tiny grow out tank (20 gallon long) with extremely small or peaceful tank mates. A baby ghost knife ~ 3", around a dozen baby black catfish (all well under 1"!) and four baby clown loaches (all well under 2") and a young silver dollar ~ 2".
I could not get the baby LNG to eat small red rosey minnows. The only tank mate that ate any of them at all was the baby ghost knife. The feeders lasted weeks until finally being picked off one by one by the knife.
I was almost relieved when the LNG devoured a baby catfish when I was concerned about starvation. Within a couple of days the baby LNG had devoured every single baby catfish. It still however would not show any interest in minnows, ghost shrimp, frozen krill or tiny pieces of cut fish meat.
I decided to try some micro color pellets (floating) and some African cichlid attack small sinking pellet for the baby loaches and possibly for the silver dollar (w/ red fins).
It came to me as a shock that the baby LNG ate every single floating color pellet.
I have repeatedly gone back to this well, and the baby LNG has never failed to devour the floating micro color pellets continuously until all pellets were gone. I am now putting in around a dozen or so larger (small) floating color pellets per feeding (twice a day). Since starting on pellets, it has increased its size to around 5" in this past month.I have never had any other gar show any interest in pellet food! Is this unhealthy for it even though it is growing quickly now. Ultimately I would have eventually liked to wean the gar off of live feeders (which I still have not gotten it to take outside of the catfish that were not intended as food). Should I continue to attempt to introduce live feeders with its diet since it eats pellets so readily, or should I just keep trying thawed aqua meats to supplement the pellets? Thanks in advance for any advice.
