Alligator Gar

[cane76]

i have just seen two of these for sale along with rtc/tsn cross.i almost brought one of the gars on impulse lucky i didnt i just found out they can reach 8foot how the hell can they sell such a fish

 

[CAC]

LOL, thanks god you didnt, impulse buying allways seems to lead to problems, how big were they?
Ive never seen one in real life.

Mikey

 

[cane76]

they are about 8-9" they are great looking fish.they also had zebra knife fish something else i have never seen and pacu

 

[nmonks]

Gars are lovely. Spotted and long-nose gar only get to about 60 cm or so in aquaria, and are perfectly behaved when kept with suitably sized tankmates. I've read that they do best kept in duos, though I kept mine singly in a brackish water community. I've watched them in the wild in Florida, where gar of various types are fairly common in brackish water, and one or two species will swim into the sea, albeit only around mangroves and oyster beds. The alligator is one of those saltwater-tolerant gars. They scoot about snapping up livebearers, crabs, and various other little beasts.

They don't move about a huge amount, but they are not "bendy", and so the aquarium does need to be at least wide enough for the fish to turn around in without bending.

Wildwoods in Enfield seems to have the biggest variety of them, kept in their coldwater section. In theory at least, the temperate zone species could be kept in a pond in England, as in the wild these fish range up into Canada.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[cane76]

great info m8 how big do the florida gar get?googled it they get to 52".it also said they will stunt growth to fit in a minimum of 55g

 

[CAC]

About 5 feet if left room to grow...

Mikey

 

[cane76]

which gars could be kept in a pond in england?i have been looking at loads of pictures of gars and i dont think they are alligator gars at all they look much more like spotted gars.if indeed they are spotted gars could i keep one in a 84x32x24?

 

[beblondie]

Maximum wildsize often smaller in captivity
Gars
Atractosteus spatula- alligator gar 6-10 '
Atractosteus tropicus- tropical gar 4'
Atractosteus tristoechus- cuban gar 6'
Lepisosteus osseus- longnose gar 6'
Lepisosteus platostomus- shortnose gar 2 1/2'-
Lepisosteus oculatus- spotted gar 4'
Lepisosteus platyrhincus- florida gar 4'
hybrid gars
Lepisosteus platostomus x Atractosteus spatula- Crocodile gar type I
Lepisosteus platyrhincus or oculatus x Atractosteus spatula-Crocidile gar type 2
Four known types exist both in wild and cultivated varieties:

Atractosteus spatula X Lepisosteus platostomus (Croc gar type I)
A. spatula X L. platyrhinchus (Croc gar type II)
A. spatula X L. oculatus
A. spatula X L. osseus

There is a strong possiability of A.spatula X A. tropicus from mexican aquacultured fish

You could probably keep any Gar in a pond in england except for th troical(Atractosteus tropicus- tropical gar 4')or the cuban(Atractosteus tristoechus- cuban gar)

 

[cane76]

ok thx a alligator gar pond would be great so really only the shortnose gar is suitable and i dont really like them

 

[CAC]

That would actually be amazing, they would be so big, and they are awesome fish to look down on (from what i have seen in pics)...

Mikey

 

[cane76]

my garden wouldnt be big enough.could they survive in a lake in the uk?

 

[nmonks]

Gar rarely get to the maximum sizes known. For example, the Florida gar has a maximum size of 1.3 metres but most adults are 33-86 cm long, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Most aquarium specimens seem to get to around the 60 cm mark. It also seems probable that females get bigger than males because they live for up to twice as long, so if you want a smaller fish, pick a male.

I believe, but I'm not sure, that Florida gar, Lepisosteus platyrhincus are currently the species most often seen in the UK. They don't range into the cool temperate states of the US, so I wouldn't keep them in a pond all year round. The cool-water species are L. osseus, the long-nose gar, and L. oculatus, the spotted gar.

I looked after what I think was a spotted gar in a 200 gallon tank. In the three years I was looking after it, it went from about 40 cm to 60 cm. It mostly ate bits of squid and mackerel but also Hikari "cichlid gold" pellets. They don't need live feeder fish, and indeed some populations (like the brackish water Florida gars) apparently feed primarily on swimming crabs. Gar basically eat anything, from ducks to carrion.

A good place for general gar fun is Save the Gar, a slightly odd name for a site primarily about gar fishing, but there you go.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[cane76]

what did you keep with your gar neale?

 

[nmonks]

It was a brackish water tank: monos, a silver scat, an archerfish, and the odd big cichlid like Tilapia rendalli that I had swiped from the research aquarium.

Florida gar can be kept in low to mid brackish without problems, though I wouldn't go above 1.010 in captivity. In the wild, they can be found in seawater, but this seems to be only a short-term thing, and at the very least they only breed in freshwater. I have one report from an aquarist who kept L. osseus thus, and upon re-adjusting them to freshwater, they spawned!

Ideally though, these should be kept in a subtropical freshwater aquarium. They would mix very well with channel cats, sunfish, carp, and so on.

Cheers,

Neale

PS. Check this out. Alligator gar and actual alligator!

http/savethegar.org/images/bft_alligator01.jpg

what did you keep with your gar neale?

 

[cane76]

great pic they are enourmous.how big a tank or pond would a gator gar need?how big do they grow in captivity?to be honest im very shocked to find a predatory fish capable of growing to 10 feet being sold in a lfs