What To Feed A Gar

[flakes]

what can i feed a 4 inch gar,it wont eat anything i give it

 

[fozziebear]

you need to mimic the movements of a dying fish, put it on a chopstick or something and wiggle it infront of the gar, if all else fails just feed live, then try dead untill it takes it.

 

[three-fingers]

If you feed live, read this first.

Otherwise just try what fozziebear says.
Try things like whitebait, prawns, earthworms

For a young gar, things like live earthworms and shrimp should be taken too.

 

[flakes]

what else can i feed it

 

[3ndl3r]

most have been covered, but a good Gar diet would include prawns, white fish, earthworms, live fish (optional) , most other shellfish, shrimps, etc...

 

[squeakytoy]

why not try listing what you have tried? what is anything?

 

[flakes]

ive tried pellets,fish flakes and daphnia.

 

[shroob]

Pellets and flakes are unlikely to be taken, occasionally gars will accept them but this takes time and patience. I would try live bloodworms and small worms as these will be moving. Daphnia may be too small for a 4" gar. Another method is to put dead food into the flow of a powerhead or filter output, this makes the food move and hopefully the gar strike thinking its living prey.

 

[3ndl3r]

it looks to me like you haven't done your research. Gars in the wild are apex predators, if you did your research you would know that they are unlikely to take pellets and flakes.

 

[kubora666]

what type of gar is it?
i had a hujeta gar (characin gar) that would eat pellets, cichlid sticks, pretty much anything!
and i had a florida gar that only ate things like cockle that was in the current like it was living. anything still it jsut ignored.

if its a large non characin gar i would try cockle, mussel, prawns, krill, anything like that that looks alive in the motion of water

 

[flakes]

its a floorida spotted gar.

 

[oakes]

Has it ever been fed or is it a newly caught wild fish?
If so start with the live food suggested, blood worm, pieces of earth worm or meal worm.
The wild gars here like nothing better than maggots. They go absolutely crazy over them. Obviously they would have to be clean for use in an aquarium. The pet stores here sell clean raised ones in a bran mix as food for small reptiles and birds.

 

[ThatGuyMike]

i have a fla spotted gar. they are sweet, you have the advise you need. i would advise every other day, or so, to ensure a healthy diet, but a diet as he wont get huge to quick. but goin a day or 2 without food wont hurt em, in the wild they will go a bit without food and lie and wait for food to come to them. so just get to know your fish, if you see him really active, hes hungry and prolly looking for food, mine personally, i feed him every 2-3 days,ill drop in 7-10 guppies depending on thier size maybe a lil more, and let him snack until they all gone, then ill pop more in 2-3 days after i see the last one has been ate.

and my fish is doing well and growing still, so i know hes also getting enuff to eat. but hes not growin quick. but hes doing well.

him being that small, some nice tank mates would be an adult guraomi( how ever its spelled) a school of barp (tinfoil barp) Large. something twice the size of his mouth a pleco, cats, something thats bigger than its mouth an faster than the gar.

enjoy, id like a pic or 2. ill have some soon

 

[darknirvana217]

I had a florida spotted gar once. Well, here they are native too. A juvenile gar such as yours is not going to take frozen or dead fish or shrimp any time soon. You'll have to start feeding live, and gradually train it to eat dead or frozen foods. gar are very cautious predators and generally will only eat that which moves around them, not a flake, pellet, daphnia, brine shrimp, or bloodworms. eventually you will be able to train it to take dead fish, shrimp, and I've even heard cut up beef heart, however, now you need to feed live fish before it starves to death. Just be careful with feeders, as many are disease ridden and lack good nutrition.

 

[Jeh316]

what can i feed a 4 inch gar,it wont eat anything i give it

Hi! in my case, at first I tried feeding them super worms. They like it. However, their poop becomes scaly and also you need to feed them just enough coz too much dead worms in the aquarium won't be good for the water. Later I tried feeding them dry catfood (brand name PRINCESS CAT) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kate_meow/5404197016/ they love it. For smaller gars, you will need to cut / break the pellets into smaller pieces so that it would fit their mouth. The only problem with this feed, is that the water gets brownish due to the food colorings of the catfood. i still need to try other catfoods that have less colorings.