What do you feed your gar??

[E_americanus]

I never tried octopus, but I feed my Gars squid regularly. They accept it, but it is my impression that they are not as fond of it as they are of fresh market fish.

As gross as it may sound, it seems like most all of my fish totally berserk out when given fish organ meat. It makes it easy for me since there is a world famous market (Lexington market) with numerous fish vendors with its own light-rail and subway stops that I transfer every day coming home from work.

To date fresh fish that I have fed include (Graded on a scale of 1 [worst] to 10 [best] based on factors including appeal to fish, filleting ease, cost and water fouling:
Tilapia - 5 (Very thick skull, heavy bones and sharp fins make it a tough cut, waste)
Spot - 8 (Extremely easy cut & a top appeal, very little waste but clouds water fast)
Croaker - 4 (Skull so thick you practically need a chainsaw to get at the brain, heavy bones, sharp finage, lots of waste)
Bass - 6 (Excellent feed other then being pricey)
Perch - 10 (perfect feed well liked, easy cut, little waste and not too messy!)
Grouper - 5 (I had the market cut fillets (for family), very bland so became fish feed)
Porgy - 8 (Easy but some sharp bone & fins need removal)
Butterfish - 9 (easy & very little waste)
Trout - 10 (perfect feed)
Mullet - 6 (extremely messy and can gag a maggot/ knock a buzzard off a meat wagon)
Flounder - 3 (Way too expensive for fish food!)

Thawed frozen and already cut varieties):
Pollack
Haddock
Swai (Not well accepted!)
Catfish (Messy and not very well accepted)
Silverside Minnows
Steakfish/ whitefish ...

i would be wary of some of this "grading" as there either hasn't been a lot of research into it or it is not necessarily true (some of it is of course opinion, which we are all entitled to).

-trout is a very fatty fish (like salmon)...it's not a perfect fish to feed gars...they will eat it, but it's not advisable to feed as a staple.

-tilapia is one of the best as it is pretty lean, relatively easily attainable even if you don't live by a fish market, and fillets are not that expensive.

- keep in mind the cost portion of your grading is also extremely relative to location, so i would generally disregard it or use it as a very coarse guide.


easily attainable frozen fish that work well a staple would be tilapia, and smelt (although fattier) works to add variety as it is generally cheap and available. frozen shrimp is usually more expensive, but also generally available and stores well...my gars are on a staple of frozen shrimp and tilapia with some pellets added to the mix regularly.

my large gars are decent size and most are on the older side of the spectrum (as far as captive hobbyist gars go - 6-7 years) and they only get fed about 2x per week.--
--solomon

 

[random fish guy]

shrimp and massivore

 

[MYFISHTALKSLOUD]

Thanx for all this info i just got a gar and the fish stores are closed so i was wondering also.

 

[Angler]

I got my two Floridas at 6" and never fed them live. I fed them tilapia pieces and Massivore until they were around 18". I sold them.

edit: didn't realize this is an old thread.