So someone i know needs to get rid of his 9 inch florida gar. I have a 400 gallon community tank with smaller fish. The gar never been fed live before it's only ever ate shrimp and talapia. He's never showed intrest in live food. How quick would he kill fish in a community tank. He is super super docile but im wondering Givin the chance would he eat the little schooling fish?
Florida gar in a community tank
- Thread starter Finster90
- Start date
What type of small fish are we talking about here? Tetras? Barbs? Cichlids? In my experience, just because a fish is "docile" and seems like it's not going to cause harm doesn't mean that it won't try to eat/attack anything that it can fit in its mouth. I've learned that the hard way with neon tetras and medium-sized cichlids.
However, there is a solution, especially if this is temporary: Feed your gar well and make sure he eats regularly (whatever his feeding schedule is, either daily, every other day, whatever is the normal schedule for the gar). The better fed he is, the less likely he will go after the little fellers. I don't mean overfeeding, which is unhealthy for the fish or the tank; I mean well-fed.
I hope this helps!
This definitely helped, sorry for not clarifying, yes they are more of the tetra realm! I love big planted tanks with small fish. But yeah they are more tetras then that, I will definitely keep him well fed then that's easy, he takes food out of my hand or tongs when I need to feed him for my buddy so that's easy. So I'll feed him enough so he doesn't feel the need to have to hunt, ill get his gar belly big haha thanks for the help, I rather take care of his gar then it go somewhere else and be harmed
He has a 12 inch moray eel too but I think that would be pushing it, I think the eel would do work in my tank
This is a recipe for disaster. Gar are apex predators and once its instincts kick in your community tank will probably be decimated. If you value the lives of the aquarium fish in your tank, I highly advise against getting the gar. If you insist on getting it, I suggest you have a temporary tank setup in case you need to move it or your tetras to a different tank. Good luck
Nope; no such thing. A predator like a gar that is so "well-fed" that it will never eat its tankmates...is by definition being overfed. At best, it might be possible to create a situation where the tankmates don't disappear quite as quickly as they might.
This thread highlights one of my favourite MFK themes: "I want a predator, 'cuz predators are cool, but I don't want it to...well, to predate...on anything in my tank. How do I do that and still keep my fish healthy?"
Simple answer: you don't.
