I am currently housing two alligator gars and two teacup stingrays in my 75 gallon... the gars are about 5 to 6 inches and the rays are about 4 inches across....i've had the four of them together for about 6 weeks now and they get along really well...what i'm looking for is another tankmate or two that are non-aggressive (no picking at my rays!!!) to add to the mix...i have good plant cover from mid-to-top thus a pretty open bottom for the rays....i prefer something a little out of the ordinary.... any suggestions would be a great help....thanx in advance
oddball tankmates
- Thread starter Cubsfan
- Start date
Alligator Gar are cool fish but they belong in the wild. There common in the lakes where I fish and they get to be great size. If I'm not mistaken there either the largest or 2nd largest freshwater fish in the world. they can be 10ft long and over 200 pounds. The largest I've herd of was 279 pounds. I was cought out of the Rio Grande in 1951. What are you going to do with them? hopefully not try to keep them in an Aquarium until there spine wears out from haveing to turn around in a tank. Everybody gets upset when people keep an arawana in a 50 gallon tank and they get to be 3 ft long. but nobody cares about gar that can be 10ft long.
I'm not trying sound like one of those tree hugger animal rights people but Alligator gars are not aquarium fish. its nothing personal. If they didn't get to big I would have one there very cool fish. But I'm telling the truth just run a search on Alligator Gar.
I'm not trying sound like one of those tree hugger animal rights people but Alligator gars are not aquarium fish. its nothing personal. If they didn't get to big I would have one there very cool fish. But I'm telling the truth just run a search on Alligator Gar.
Just for an interesting fact...
The college I went to, Millersville University, has the longest kept alligator gar in captivity, and the oldest in captivity at 30+yrs. I believe it was kept in only a 30 gallon long tank all those years, and maxed out at 2' in length. A very stunted fish indeed. I don't think anybody even remembers what he was orginally collected for (yes he was actually caught by a professor and previous class all those many years ago). He didn't have a name as far as I know, we just called him "GAR". He ate about 20 big feeder goldfish a week. If you weren't careful, he'd eat your fingers too. Once, when a few of us were talking around his tank, my friend put her hand over the top and forgot he was stalking her. He lept at her fingers! Didn't get them, but we all nearly died laughing about it (even though it shouldn't have been funny).
Yeah, but I agree with oscardude, some fish need left in the wild.
~~Colesea
The college I went to, Millersville University, has the longest kept alligator gar in captivity, and the oldest in captivity at 30+yrs. I believe it was kept in only a 30 gallon long tank all those years, and maxed out at 2' in length. A very stunted fish indeed. I don't think anybody even remembers what he was orginally collected for (yes he was actually caught by a professor and previous class all those many years ago). He didn't have a name as far as I know, we just called him "GAR". He ate about 20 big feeder goldfish a week. If you weren't careful, he'd eat your fingers too. Once, when a few of us were talking around his tank, my friend put her hand over the top and forgot he was stalking her. He lept at her fingers! Didn't get them, but we all nearly died laughing about it (even though it shouldn't have been funny).
Yeah, but I agree with oscardude, some fish need left in the wild.
~~Colesea
i wasn't asking for reasons why i shouldn't have gars...but in response the same can be said for almost every fish.... but if you visit your local pet/fish shoppe you will always find fish that are not your ideal aquarium fish... tiger muskies, peacock bass, paroon sharks, and tons of various saltwater fish... however most fish will grow to the size of the aquarium... i've kept jaguars, oscars, red devils, and numberous other cichlids for up to 4 years in 125g aquariums and after they've reached a certain size and somewhat stopped growing in length.. the only fish to really outgrow a tank of mine is the redtail catfish...
anyway, i understand your concern that these fish do get VERY large in size, in the wild, but on an aquarium level, i've never seen or herd of one outgrowing the tank....
anyway, as i said before, virtually every fish in the stores belong in the wild, but thats whats comes with being a fish hobbyist.....
anyway, i understand your concern that these fish do get VERY large in size, in the wild, but on an aquarium level, i've never seen or herd of one outgrowing the tank....
anyway, as i said before, virtually every fish in the stores belong in the wild, but thats whats comes with being a fish hobbyist.....
So true...
As far as tankmates, I couldn't even begin to fathom something a gar won't eat. Large irradescent shark maybe? SA cichlids that can fight back at at?
And I don't know what won't eat a stingray.
These fish are outside my experience of fishkeeping, except for "Gar" who kinda doesn't count since he lived in a barren tank all by his lonesome.
~~Colesea
As far as tankmates, I couldn't even begin to fathom something a gar won't eat. Large irradescent shark maybe? SA cichlids that can fight back at at?
And I don't know what won't eat a stingray.
These fish are outside my experience of fishkeeping, except for "Gar" who kinda doesn't count since he lived in a barren tank all by his lonesome.
~~Colesea
I should not have vented my frustration about gar in here but there needs to be a little concern about this. This fish is disappearing out of rivers and lakes. There is a real problem when people are willing to hurt a natural population because they want to own an unusual fish.We can not breed these fish. we can't even raise them to any level of maturity. I'm not saying pet shops are totally responsible for the fish heading on its was to being indangered but its doesn't help anything. we know very little about these fish, but one thing is for sure is that there going to be in some real trouble if nobody does anything about it. So what if you want to take a fish that could grow to be 12ft long and 300 pounds and keep it in an aquarium. What about natural life span does anybody know? this is a fish that we cannot reproduce. If we find out there indangered than there is little we can do about it. What about Habitat? they don't really have one because they are always on the move.
But hell its just a species of fish we don't really need. Lets just make it an Asian Arowana story(oh yeah its to reproduce tham in captivity.) this isn't personel if you have a gar keep it and enjoy it. but if you a pet shop owner show a little responsibility and stop selling these fish.(and if your a fisherman don't kill them when you catch them just cut the line) I've never been the type of person to really care what people do with individual fish. after all they are just fish. but this is a local fish and its our responsibility to take care of our fish. who else is going to?
But hell its just a species of fish we don't really need. Lets just make it an Asian Arowana story(oh yeah its to reproduce tham in captivity.) this isn't personel if you have a gar keep it and enjoy it. but if you a pet shop owner show a little responsibility and stop selling these fish.(and if your a fisherman don't kill them when you catch them just cut the line) I've never been the type of person to really care what people do with individual fish. after all they are just fish. but this is a local fish and its our responsibility to take care of our fish. who else is going to?
CUBSFAN I apologize for being totally off topic. I shouldn't have said anything to begin with but since I did I wanted to finish my opinion.(above) anyway it sounds like you have a cool tank. OFF TOPIC AGAIN... have you ever fed gar small bluegill. You can get them around here really cheap. I get mine out of my lake but they are a natural food staple of gar in the wild. I often see them feeding in the bream beds