troppond;4939560; said:
no offense taken madding, but this is a 1000$+ hole in the ground haha. Just every year I make the pond bigger during Spring. In its current location this should be its max size. Every year I've been kind of rushed but this year I have all the time in the world. Its a fact that the average person builds 3 pond before they are happy, and this is the 4th pond. The pond has had ccountless hours of mmaintenance and care. And I have kept natives, tropicals, and koi in this pond. And just wondering but monsterminis how is a 5 ft alligator gar fine but a 5 ft musky or 4 ft pike isnt? I mean its going to be 12x7?
troppond;4939589; said:
Can anyone set me up with someone that will sell gator gar? This pond will be fully cycled and ready for the main fish by late april or may, Wiggles, if you know of anyone selling them please contact me once I have it up and running, Ill PM you. Can't wait im donewith digging!!!!
What Madding was getting at is that many people think that because gars are reputed to be like tanks therefore you can just plop them in pretty much any freshwater body of water, no matter what the temperature is, and go. In reality, they are like tanks if they have been acclimated to the conditions and are provided with ample food and space. They don't handle rapid changes very well at all, but they can adjust to certain conditions if they are given enough time to slowly do so. They're extremely adaptable fish, but they're still not invincible.
I honestly wouldn't keep anything over 3' in that pond if you don't intend on feeding them anything other than the other fish that are going to be in there. You'll want to try to build a food chain of sorts to ensure that there will always be an ample supply of food for the gar. I'd say start by adding a bunch of minnows (shiners, etc.), then adding a small school of adult bluegills (specifically bluegills, not other sunfish) a few weeks later, then add a few bullhead catfish (all of the same species), then finally add a single gar after all the other fish have been in the pond for a few weeks. All of the fish that I mentioned before make up the bulk of the diets of wild gars in different regions of North America. The goal is to be sure that there are plenty of smaller fish for the gar to eat, and to also be sure that the other fish are doing fine prior to adding the gar.
In either pond, you'll want to have plenty of plants along the edges of the pond, ome floating plants, and some submerged plants. Underwater structures such as driftwood will be greatly appreciated by all of the fish, so consider provided some form of underwater shelter as well. These additions will help to keep the other fish that act as the gars food from getting completely wiped out.
If you plan on feeding any fish over 3', then be prepared to have some heavy filtration on that pond to prevent waste from building up. It may not affect the gar at first, but it will kill off the other fish and eventually the gar.
I'm not aware of anyone who has alligator gar for sale currently, but I know that
Aquascape has them from time to time. If you choose to go for a smaller species of gar, then check with some of the other vendors on here such as
Snookn21, and also be sure to check
TFD because they sometimes have gars for sale.
