Which gar grows the fastest next to gators?

[E_americanus]

Our longnose has been slow growing so far. Only grown about 2" since we got him a few months ago actually, but he just recently got off of live fods, so I see his growth rate increasing here over the ext few months. Our T-gar by far was the fastest grower we have had. I guess it depends on the individual fish and what their diet/environment are like. Longnose seem to be a thinner gar in general. Ours only ever looks bulky when it has food in its belly.

yes, it definitely depends on the overall environment (water quality, feeding, temp, basically all the eco-factors) in terms of how fast the gar will grow, but with all things being equal, and in several 'trials' with several different fishes, a longnose will out grow a tropical gar in terms of length quite easily. weight may be a different issue, but it's probably at least close.

a ROUGH continuum of gar growth rates, from fastest to slowest (again, relatively speaking, and just generalization) probably goes as follows:

alligator ------- longnose ---- Cuban/tropical --- Florida/spotted/shortnose

also keep in mind that in terms of length, the longnose gar is the second biggest gar--
--solomon

 

[KaraJo]

yes, it definitely depends on the overall environment (water quality, feeding, temp, basically all the eco-factors) in terms of how fast the gar will grow, but with all things being equal, and in several 'trials' with several different fishes, a longnose will out grow a tropical gar in terms of length quite easily. weight may be a different issue, but it's probably at least close.

a ROUGH continuum of gar growth rates, from fastest to slowest (again, relatively speaking, and just generalization) probably goes as follows:

alligator ------- longnose ---- Cuban/tropical --- Florida/spotted/shortnose

also keep in mind that in terms of length, the longnose gar is the second biggest gar--
--solomon

So by this, size has a big effect on their growth rate. As it seems, the bigger the gar, the faster they grow which makes sense. Do the cubans get as long as the longnose gar?

We are getting antsy for our longnose to be with the big boys, but he has no girth, so he will have to grow a lot more.

 

[ESJBond007]

do u have have any recent pictures of your long noise gar? How big was the long noise when you first got him and what size is the gar now?

 

[KaraJo]

do u have have any recent pictures of your long noise gar? How big was the long noise when you first got him and what size is the gar now?

I wouldnt' consider mine the "model gar" for this thread since he is a slow grower. He is finally starting to grow faster and I can see atleast an inch a month growth rate over the next few months. We got him at around 4" and he is only about 6-7" now.

Also remember, this is the only experience I have with a longnose, so for overall info on different speices, you are best to take Polypterus or E_Americanus' word since they have been working with gar and studiying them for a long time now.

Here was when we first got him:

Here is just a quick photo I just took:

 

[ESJBond007]

nice looking gar i got my gar the same size at 4 inches and right now is about 8 inches.what size tank is your gar in ? mines in a ten gallon right now

 

[KaraJo]

looks like your is going to need a little upgrade soon. This guy is in a 29 gal for now. We are goign to keep him in there as long as we can then we may step him up to the 55 gal. beofre going to the 180.

 

[ESJBond007]

do long noise gars only get 2 feet in a aquarium since they dont get that big in the wild of three to four feet

 

[KaraJo]

do long noise gars only get 2 feet in a aquarium since they dont get that big in the wild of three to four feet

I believe in the wild these guys can get up to 6'. In captivity, you will be lucky to see 3'. His growing should slow down about the 18" mark.

 

[E_americanus]

male longnoses don't seem to get much past 24" in captivity, this is based on observations richard made and that we've discussed many times. also, a lot of 'trade-in' longnose gars i've picked up over the years are usually around 18" and obviously stunted...of course, they are also prone to die for somewhat mysterious reasons too.

longnoses are listed with a wild max of 6'...but usually are smaller. a longnose around 3'-4.5' is a big adult in most cases.

Cubans supposedly get to 6' long as well, but i've never seen a pic of a fish even close to this. richard and i have been discussing this issue for some time now, and will hopefully have some better answers/explanations soon. especially since we may be getting some new research data into the mix on adult Cubans.

but yes, at least with gars, the larger species have an overall faster growth rate...figure if you have a bigger average max size to get to, you'll have to grow faster to get there. it should be noted, however, that pretty much all gars can quickly grow to 12" under the right circumstances--
--solomon

 

[demjor19]

solomon,

since our Longnose gar started growing very slowly due to a poor diet of live feeders could this have possibly stunted his growth? he dose seem to be growing now that we finally got him on krill and pellets, but he quite literally went 2 months w/ no growth at all.