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| Gars in the Home aquarium |
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| Friday, 26 September 2003 07:03 |
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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 |