Florida alligator gar

Bjorn Borg

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 30, 2023
14
9
3
34
I'm a bit astonished that at an age of at least 9 months, the fish is only 10cm in length. Is it eating?

What kind of temperatures has it been exposed to?
Yes, of course it was eating. I feed them blood worms since they are still young as I got them when they were still fry.
Now with this problem it is not eating very well. It’s like it doesn’t have the apatite due to this condition.
 

jjohnwm

Sausage Finger Spam Slayer
MFK Member
Mar 29, 2019
3,816
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Manitoba, Canada
Hard to say whether there might be a connection, but the growth of the fish is glacially slow compared to what one should expect. Bloodworms...like almost any food...do not make up a nutritionally-complete diet on their own, and it would be pretty hard to get a 4-inch gar to even eat enough of them to maintain its weight, let alone grow.

Again, this might or might not be a contributing factor to whatever the fish is suffering from, but any sickness or disease will have a greater deleterious effect on a malnourished, undersized fish than it would on a healthy well-fed specimen.
 

Bjorn Borg

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 30, 2023
14
9
3
34
Hard to say whether there might be a connection, but the growth of the fish is glacially slow compared to what one should expect. Bloodworms...like almost any food...do not make up a nutritionally-complete diet on their own, and it would be pretty hard to get a 4-inch gar to even eat enough of them to maintain its weight, let alone grow.

Again, this might or might not be a contributing factor to whatever the fish is suffering from, but any sickness or disease will have a greater deleterious effect on a malnourished, undersized fish than it would on a healthy well-fed specimen.
I always nourish the fish, with good and nutritional food. Blood worms are the main food which are fed daily. Then I feed pallets and occasionally fresh shrimp (cut down in small pieces).
All the left over food will be removed in the morning to keep the water parameters good.
Even now, that it is not eating for the last couple of days, I still give it food just in case it will get hungry and eat, therefore I do not malnourish the fish.
 
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