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Gars in the Home aquarium
Posted by: Rkik on Friday, September 26, 2003 - 07:03 AM
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Gars in the aquarium:
Species of gar:
Florida spotted gar, Lepisosteus platyrhinchus
Spotted gar, Lepisosteus oculatus
Shortnosed gar, Lepisosteus platostomus
Long-nosed gar, Lepisosteus osseus
Alligator gar, Atractosteus spatula
Tropical gar, Atractosteus tropicus
Manfari or Cuban gar Atractosteus tristoechus
Of all gar that are available only the Spotted, Florida, and Shortnose
should be considered for aquarium care, Longnosed gar grow entirely
to large for the average hobbyist , Alligator gar; just get it out of your
mind, these fish are utterly impossible to keep without a very large pond,
as cool a fish they are just enjoy seeing them at a public aquarium, don't
kid yourself into thinking you can keep one indoors. The Tropical could
possibly be kept, that is if you could find one. Cuban is a Red-list
endangered species and is not available anyhow.
Of the above gar, I'm only going to write about the most common
you are likely to come across, the Shortnose, Spotted or Florida gars,
All three of these fish tend to stay below two feet in the aquarium, and
are Frequently labled as the "Alligator gar" in most LFS, to tell the
species apart is quite simple, a Shortnose will have a "shortnose"
and will not have any spotting on the top of the head,
The Spotted and Florida will have a spotted head, to tell these two apart,
you need to examine for plates on the isthmus,(Fleshy area between lower jaws
extending back to the Gills) on the Spotted gar this will have bony plates,
on the Florida these plates will be absent,
Caring for gar:
Gar are beyond undemanding fish all they require is appropriate food,
clean water and a good amount of space,
Gar can be feed your usual Feeder prey, Goldfish and such, Goldfish
though should never be the only thing fed, they are not overly nutritious
and do contain a B vitamin destroying enzyme, I prefer to offer them
Minnows from the Local bait shop over those found in the LFS,
It is also easy to train these fish to take frozen or prepared foods,
and in the long haul this is really your best option for convenience , price
and health of your fish, frozen whole fish such as Silversides, and Smelt
are preferable to strips of fish flesh, as you do want the whole body of
the feed animal for proper nutrition,
Gar need a lot of room to move, I would not recommend keeping them in
anything under a 100 gallon Breeder, Breeder tanks are preferable to a
regular tank as they provide the needed surface area and turning space, larger tanks are much better, with gar the larger the better.
The water does not need to be anything special, they need no specific
pH or hardness and will tolerate all but the most acrid water with ease,
they do however require clean water, and being a carnivorous they dirty
their water quickly, Small yet frequent water changes are a necessity,
Temperature is not critical and can range from 60 to 90 degrees
Fahrenheit.
A one to two inch space should be left at the top of the tank, Gar do
"Breath" air and will suffer greatly if not allowed atmospheric air.
Some notes on Behavior and Care:
Gar are more or less an ambush predators, they do stalk their prey but
Prefer that their food comes to them, they can be lightning fast in the
presence of food if hungry though, they are NOT aggressive fish at all,
they do not show any signs of territorial aggression or belligerence of any
sort to any other fish they do not consider to be a prey item, anything they can
cram into their maw will be a prey item, Gars live in somewhat loose
schools in the wild, and only really congregate to breed in late spring,
Breeding has been accomplished in the aquarium for the Spotted gar
(T.F.H. August 2002 issue, Hiroshi Azuma's account is well
documented), Avoid keeping Gars with any type of Pl*co as they
will suck on the sides of the fish and cause all sorts of infections
which can be hard to treat, Gars are very sensitive to most medications
and should never be given any in a full dose, often this makes it hard
to treat the fish after a infection sets in, prevention is best,
Please if you have questions about these fish feel free to ask in the forums
Note: Published at FishGeeks with express permission from the author. This article can not be copied or reprinted, either physically or electronically without the permission of the author. Copyright 2003.
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Tropical Fish Items
