I Need Help With My New Gar

[GARfish]

ok, so i recently received my gar, and i must say he is cool. ive had him for a few weeks now, and just recently bought a 55 gal tank and moved him into it. the tank is well filtered and aerated. i keep the temp between 78-80. i have gravel lined at the bottom and a few big rocks stacked and leaning against one another. i have two fake plants (a small one and a large, and a set coming from ebay). i have no other fish in the tank except the feeders. ive been feeding him 4-5 guppies a day because they were real small. but i just picked up some fatheads, and many of them are much bigger. hes about 7 inches long now.

i have questions on keeping him healthy.
how often does he need to be fed?
how many of these fatheads should i give him each feeding? they are 2-3 inches
should i be giving him food other than fish? like frogs,worms, freeze dried nutrition?
is my environment good enough for the gar as is?
how often do i need to clean/change water in the tank?
can i put other predatory fish in the tank as well, or will they fight and kill each other?
i was hoping i could put 1 or 2 of the following in with him...
-northern pike
-musky
-walleye
-bass
-trout
-catfish/bullhead/sucker
-crab/lobster/crayfish/clam


thanks for your help

 

[Soaup]

I dont know much about gar's i had one for a short while in a 125. I was feeding him goldies for the time i had him about once a week he would have a feast. I know goldies to not be too nutritional so i dont know if that was for the best, he was only temp homed by me though. I was changing the water 25-50% every 2 weeks. All i can say about the 55 is be prepared to get a new tank as he will most definately outgrow that set up sooner rather than later.

 

[ThatGuyMike]

ok, so i recently received my gar, and i must say he is cool. ive had him for a few weeks now, and just recently bought a 55 gal tank and moved him into it. the tank is well filtered and aerated. i keep the temp between 78-80. i have gravel lined at the bottom and a few big rocks stacked and leaning against one another. i have two fake plants (a small one and a large, and a set coming from ebay). i have no other fish in the tank except the feeders. ive been feeding him 4-5 guppies a day because they were real small. but i just picked up some fatheads, and many of them are much bigger. hes about 7 inches long now.

i have questions on keeping him healthy.
how often does he need to be fed?
how many of these fatheads should i give him each feeding? they are 2-3 inches
should i be giving him food other than fish? like frogs,worms, freeze dried nutrition?
is my environment good enough for the gar as is?
how often do i need to clean/change water in the tank?
can i put other predatory fish in the tank as well, or will they fight and kill each other?
i was hoping i could put 1 or 2 of the following in with him...
-northern pike
-musky
-walleye
-bass
-trout
-catfish/bullhead/sucker
-crab/lobster/crayfish/clam


thanks for your help

I have a Gar. First thing i would suggest would be to cut back on feeding. not to shock his system. go back to every other day, not once a day. dont worry it wont hurt em. fish can go longer than that with out eating. hes not an active fish, so it wont use much energy. in the wild, they really dont hunt unless they REALLY hungry. naturally they lie and wait for prey to swim by.


the smaller the fish the better. he wont get big to quick. live foods. he wont eat dried or anything. you would be a lil happy to breed feeder quppies, and ghost shrimp are also a snack for them. frogs if you can get them small and cheap.

ive had my gar for about 5 or 6 months. he just at 4 and a half inches. hes gotten a lil girth though. so hes eating good.

as far as tank mates you would want something bigger than its mouth, but something that is faster than he is, that he might be particular to attack. i have a gourmai in with mine, and when i move him. i got a few large angel fish. and im looking at some large tinfoil barp.

id like to see a few pics of your gar bud. feel free to hit me up on here in chat or outside of chat for assistance.



and of anything you dont want any tank mates that would be aggressive im looking at some other tank mates ill let you know what goes good with em

hit me up

 

[Zawiha]

it'd be nice to see what type of gar it is?
i cant give any proper advice unless i know the specie

Somehow i expect the florida or spotted gar.

 

[GARfish]

yes, my gar is doing quite well now. he is a native to the area im from (western NY), so i believe he is a striped/longnose gar. which i believe is the same fish.

i slowly cut is feeding back, but his growth doesnt seem to stop. hes quite big now. i will have to upgrade to a bigger tank if i want to keep him through winter.

i also added a few roommates. ive got 2 blue gill and 2 crawfish. all too big for the gar to munch on. although he sometimes attacks the smaller blue gill, i think only because he is somewhat annoying from time to time.

im grabbing a 20 gal from a friend tonite, and im gonna set it up for my aquatic life for 1-2 days while i clean and rearrange the 55 gal. ive got all the water treatment/purifiers ill need.

i dont have any pics yet, but maybe i can borrow a camera and get some up here soon.

and ive realized at some point, hes gonna be too big for me to manage anymore, and ill have to release him. will he survive? will he be able to still feed even though ive isolated him from his natural habitat? will he be killed by the water where i released him, cuz after all he has had contaminate-free filterd water? will it be ok to release him during winter?

 

[1411939]

a 55 gallon tank isnt good for this type of gar they WILL grow to the length of ur tank which will make it very difficult for the gar to turn around, lots of people have this issue with gars, especially the gars from the store, and u shouldnt feed it fathead minnows, they are very unhealthy, id rather feed it pellet food such as krill, shrimp, cichlid pellet, and maybe soem worms, one last thing, DOTN ever try to add a fish smaller than him, they are very well known to eat big fishes such as angelfish, they can bite ur finger off wit that mouth be careful