Gar TANKMATES - Share your experiences

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xander

xander

Manjuari
MFK Member
Sep 6, 2007
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Singapore
alright, i thought it might be a good idea to have a collaborative thread for members to share their experiences of different tankmates with gars. the idea for this thread is for us to gain a useable, easily accessable pool of experience to make the forum more comprehensive and the art of gar keeping better understood. so this is how (i feel) the thread should go. feel free to pm me with comments, feedback or criticism!
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Madding;4869659; said:
Alex, there should be some sort of official way to quote someone and report the same experience to reduce redundancy. Like, I want to advocate that my attempting 2x false gars (spotted pike characins) ended up dead, but I don't have much else to add to leeman's experience.
Click to expand...

simply post a reply stating that you advocate or agree with someones post & i'll add it to the tankmate profile.

refer to post #6 for an example
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Copy and paste the following and continue to fill up the blanks to participate!!

Tankmate family/common name - family name(or members)/scientific name

Members' experience :

Species & Size of Gar:

Size of tank:

Size of tankmate:


Duration of cohabitation:


Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros:

Cons:

Other Comments:

Members' overall compatibility rating : #/10
(include experience on aggression, spooking, etc)
​
This Section will be subject to moderation, inclusion and exclusion depending on the quality of post and the legitability of individual posts.
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reGARding the "Members' overall compatibility rating : #/10" section, one is free to have his own rating rubrix. but here's mine. nothing to quote me by, but something i find rather useful from a hobbyist point of view when deciding if i should try a tankmate.

water body requirements (slow moving vs fast moving) - 2 points
tendency to spook/cause spooking - 2 points
boisterious/aggressive/territorial behavior - 2 points
tendency to draw aggression from gars - 2 points
misc - 2 points

i rate each tankmate based on those 5 items, rating them from 0-2 and adding the scores. of course, certain factors (such as slime sucking behavior from plecos or insane territorial behaviour from aggressive cichlids (ime, oscar)) will over ride this rubrix.
 
Index of Gar TANKMATES

Arowana / Bonytongue

Barbs

Bichirs

Catfish

Characins

Cichlids

Eels

Holostei

Knifefish

Loaches

Lungfishes

Other North American Native Fishes

Plants

Snakeheads

Stingrays

Turtles
 
Bichirs - Polypteridae

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 9.5/10

Members' experience : Xander

Species & Size of Gar
- 5x ~24" cuban gars
- around 15x 4" - 18" florida gars
- several 4" - 18" alligator gars

Size of tank
I've mixed them in tanks from 2x1x1, 3x1.5x1.5, 4x1.5x1.5, 4x2x2, 5x3x2 & 6x4x2. no problems ever.

Size of tankmate
Ranged from 4" to 18". but they were always roughly the same size as the gars.

Duration of cohabitation
Anywhere from a month to up to 2 years.

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: They do help clean up the gars uneaten food. I've never had any issues with aggression from either side.

Cons: NIL

Other Comments: Almost every one of my gars have been mixed with bichirs at some time or other. It's probably important to note that the gars & bichirs were always similiar sized. I believe this is a key factor to consider when mixing gars and bichirs.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 10/10
IME bichirs are as compatible as one could hope for in terms of non-gar tankmates. they are everything you are looking for in a Gar tankmate; bottom dwelling, slow moving, neither silvery nor boisterous and last but not least, they seldom spook or make quick, sudden movements.

Members' experience : Msjinkzd

Species & Size of Gar
24" tropical

Size of tank
230g

Size of tankmate
20-24"

Duration of cohabitation
2 years so far

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: Wonderful tankmates. The gar dogpiles with the polypterus.

Cons: the gar can eat quicker than the polypterus

Other Comments:

Members' overall compatibility rating : 9/10
(include experience on aggression, spooking, etc)

No issues with the polys aggression to the gar, the polys occasoinally get a fin shredded at feeding time as my trop eats off the bottom.
 
Lima Shovelnose - Sorubim lima

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 7/10

Members' experience : pharmaecopia

Species & Size of Gar
- Multiple florida gars from 3” – 16”
 - Alligator Gar 15”
Size of tank
I have had them mixed in tanks 2.5x1x1.5, 4x1.5x1.5, 6x1.5x2, 4x2x2, 5x2.5x1.5

Size of tankmate
 Ranged from 2.5” to 13”, with the sizes being at most double for either the catfish or the gar

Duration of cohabitation
Have had them housed together up to 2 years

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: Haven’t had any problems mixing, get along well, swim around with each other

Cons: The limas sometimes steal the food from the gars. There are occasional nip marks on the limas. These usually heal up in a couple days. The limas can get startled, which can startle the gars in turn.

Other Comments: Won’t be a long term tankmate with the gator gar. When the limas are housed in groups they are usually calmer which caused the gars to stop getting startled as often.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 7/10
Overall I have found them to be good gar tankmates. They can get spooked, spooking the gars in turn.


Other members' comments

sbuse;4882664; said:
my 13" lima got killed by my 20" florida. it had been attacked several times by it. my opinon is that unless the lima is larger then the gar or atleast the same size then it will work, but smaller it is a risk. to slender of a cat.
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Fire Eel - Mastacembelus erythrotaenia

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 9/10

Members' experience : MonsterMinis

Species & Size of Gar
- Florida 14"+

Size of tank
- 75 gallons 4' x 18" x 21"

Size of tankmate
-10"+

Duration of cohabitation
- 1 yr.

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: absolutely no aggression, even shareing nap spots.

Cons: eels sometimes can be abit spastic during feeding time. But my experiance is it has taught the gars to chill out not spook more.

Other Comments: I was worried at first the combo would not work well due to the gars teeth, and the nature of the eels being curiouse. I would be cautiouse or hesistate with more aggressive gar species/individuals.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 9/10
(include experience on aggression, spooking, etc)

My experiances have been nothing but positive with this mix as well as the max sizes being acceptable. I've only seen my gar less flighty as a result of the boisterousness of the eels but some gar may be the opposite. I would not hesistate mixing more floridas with my fires but would take other species case by case.
 
False Gars - Needle fish, Pike characin, Hugeta Gars, etc...

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 0/10

Members' experience : Screaminleeman

Species & Size of Gar:
Longnose Gar ~ 7"

Size of tank:
20G long

Size of tankmate:
2x Needlefish ~ 5"

Duration of cohabitation:
1 week

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: None

Cons: Terminal aggression

Other Comments: False Gar(s) have not fared well as tankmates with true gars in my experience. A very similar experience occured with mixing Huerta with true gars!

Members' overall compatibility rating : 0/10

Members' experience : Madding

Madding has agreed with the information provided in this post
Madding;4869659; said:
I want to advocate that my attempting 2x false gars (spotted pike characins) ended up dead
Click to expand...

Members' experience : MonsterMinis

MonsterMinis has agreed with the information provided in this post
MonsterMinis;4869641; said:
Experianced the same intense aggression with my needle fish 10" and my florida 6" at the time. in a 40G, needle had to be removed as it was getting shredded. def agree.. Do not mix.
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Knife Fish (larger species') - Clown knives

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 8/10

Members' experience : Screaminleeman

 Species & Size of Gar:
Florida Gar 2x @ ~8"

Size of tank:
90G 5x2x2

Size of tankmate:
10" Clown Knife

Duration of cohabitation:
6 months

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: Attractive combination of oddball predators. Generally inhabited different water columns within the tank. Very little if any direct interaction between species.

Cons: Knives seem far more suseptible to external parasites that gars requiring a more thourough quaranteen of live feeder fish if that is your purogotive. It required handfeed training to make this combination most successful.

Other Comments: Gar handfeed training has proven extremely simple. The handfeed training for my CK was suprisingly a success upon my first attempt!

Members' overall compatibility rating : 8/10

Members' experience : Sbuse

sbuse;4903387; said:
my exp. is with a 12" florida and a 7" clown knife. were always fine kept together for over a year. never any problems. clown knife died at 20" and the gar is currently 22" when the CK died. great combo ck cleaned up after the gars sloppy pellet eatting.

only con. i have is that clown knifes like to breech. this behavior can spook a gar from time to time cause the ck would/could breech on the gar at times. this is the only reason i didn't give it a 10/10. i handfeed sometimes, but most was a 'fend for yourself' feeding. my rating is a 8/10 aswell.
Click to expand...

Members' overall compatibility rating : 8/10
 
Niger Catfish - Oxydoras niger

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 7/10

Members' experience : pharmaecopia

Species & Size of Gar
- 3 Alligator Gars from 20” to 34”

Size of tank
10’ x 4.5’ x 2’ indoor pond

Size of tankmate
Range from 20” to 32”

Duration of cohabitation
A couple months so far

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: The niger catfish are calm do not freak out the gars. They are very efficient at cleaning up after the little scraps the gator gars leave. Their armour like scales and scutes protects them if the gars should get aggressive.

Cons: Have been a few torn fins. Nigers occasionally push the gars out of the way to get to their food.

Other Comments: Seem to get along very well, are almost always resting near each other. Follow each other around and rest on top of each other. I feed frequent smaller feedings for the gator gars. This seemed to make the gars act calmer and less nippy.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 7/10
In find them to be very compatible and one of the few things I would mix with similarly sized gator gars. Due to the relatively short period of time I have had them together I am only giving them a 7. This rating would likely increase the longer the combination is successful.
 
Tiger Shovelnose Catfish - Phseudoplatystoma fasciatum

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 10/10

Members' experience : Wiggles92
Species & Size of Gar
- 1x Florida gar (12”)

Size of tank
I temporarily had my Florida gar in with my tiger shovelnose catfish in a 29 gallon for a two weeks before moving them to a 190 gallon stock tank. They stayed in the stock tank for another two weeks. The two fish spent about a month together in total.

Size of tankmate
- 1x 10” tiger shovelnose catfish

Duration of cohabitation
- two weeks in the 29 gallon aquarium
- two weeks in the 190 gallon stock tank

Comments (pros and cons, other comments)

Pros: The catfish ate all of the gar’s leftovers in addition to its own food, so there never was a problem with wasting food. I never had any trouble with aggression because they tended to keep themselves, but they would sometimes lay by each other on the problem with no problems.
Cons: No cons from my experience.

Other Comments: Both fish would get spooked sometimes and dart, but they never would scare each other or cause each other to dart if only one of them got scared.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 10/10


Other members' comments
sbuse;4882677; said:
once big enough not to be on the menu of each i also give a 10/10 for them. had my 18" florida with 3x 20-24" TSNs with no problems.
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Fly River Turtle aka Pig nose Turtle

Collective Members' compatibility rating : 0/10

Members' Experience : Madding

Species & Size of Gar:

- 1x Florida gar (12”)
- 1x Xanthic FL gar (10")
- 2x Longnose Gar (10", 11")
- 1x Tropical Gar (18")

[This was before the 500g was set up]

Size of tank:

150g, 4' x 2' x 30" Gar grow-out tank.

Size of tank-mate:

- 1x 14” Fly River Turtle (male)

Duration of cohabitation:

 Approximately a month or two.

Comments:

Pros: No pro's worth reporting.

Cons: While the FRT eats almost a 100% fruit and vegetable diet, it was still very aggressive towards elongated fish like polypterus, lungfish and gar. It ignored wide-bodied fish like datnoids and cichlids. It would attack gars at night, from the smaller (10-12") gar to the large tropical (18"+). The bite of the FRT does not fray fins - it simply bites out large chunks at a time, which is much more dangerous.

Other Comments: After the golden gar arrived I was forced to make a tough decision and sold the exotic turtle. The turtle nearly killed a stingray and severely damaged my australian lungfish in addition to the gars. I was waiting for the 500g to be ready and the 150g was overstocked as a holding tank. However, I would not recommend keeping an FRT with gars you value, no matter the tank size.

Members' overall compatibility rating : 0/10
 
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