advice on my 2 foot platinum alligator gar and tankmates

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Landonious

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Jan 15, 2018
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Hi, so I have a temperary grow out 450 gallon tank in my garage currently with a super growing platinum alligator gar that is already past 2 feet. he shares the tank (kids pool, so good width and length. He isn't in a glass aquarium) with an arapaima, pacu, and bichir. He isnt aggressive at all and everyone plays nice. I feed them 2 times a day.

My question is have anyone in this forum legit cared for a 4 or 5+ feet alligator gar?? what is your experience. How did it do with tankmates? What tankmates did you have? If you had it in the past, what happened to it?

I love to get some feedback from the gar monsterfishkeeper aquarium.

Please have actual adult alligator gar experience, not copy and pasta of opinions from forums. In our life, we find that people just love to share opinions on things they have no experience with, and unfortunately it happens alot on this forum. People just regurgitate fish species compatibility without actually having experience in it.

By the way, I'm building my 7500 gallon above ground acrylic aquarium next month and will update the community step by step build when it is finished. The tank will have 2 glass sides, 10 feet wide, 20 feet long, and 5 feet tall. The 2 glass sides will need 3 panels of 9 feet by 5 feet acrylic panels at 2 inches thick. Each panel will cost $2500 a piece.

So I would love to hear actual adult alligator gar growing experiences and their tankmates, not just opinions heard from other people and other people.

Thanks!
 
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Yeah, Landon I forgot about Vince. Vince's gars are probably over 4' now and he has a group of them, so he'd be your best adviser.

Pacu is safe more or less. Arapaima and bichir are smaller than your gar. I'd be somewhat concerned for them.

As for the catfish, e.g., the gars will bite IDS, placid smaller doradiids. Not RTC or TSN. I only raised a pair to 3'. I'd recommend only tank mates that can stand their ground and are robust. Beyond 3', IDK. I heard the same thing but the grapevine is usually unreliable. Gator gars will bite tank mates they can't eat at all so there should be a push back and they learn. Otherwise continue biting until it weakens and dies.

They don't bite out of stress but for a taste-test. Feeding well alleviates this but doesn't eliminate this habit, I reckon.
 
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thebiggerthebetter said:
Yeah, Landon I forgot about Vince. Vince's gars are probably over 4' now and he has a group of them, so he'd be your best adviser.

Pacu is safe more or less. Arapaima and bichir are smaller than your gar. I'd be somewhat concerned for them.

As for the catfish, e.g., the gars will bite IDS, placid smaller doradiids. Not RTC or TSN. I only raised a pair to 3'. I'd recommend only tank mates that can stand their ground and are robust. Beyond 3', IDK. I heard the same thing but the grapevine is usually unreliable. Gator gars will bite tank mates they can't eat at all so there should be a push back and they learn. Otherwise continue biting until it weakens and dies.

They don't bite out of stress but for a taste-test. Feeding well alleviates this but doesn't eliminate this habit, I reckon.
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Given comparable sizes, do you feel paimas and gators would be a good match? Nothing that I'm equipped to have either, but that's a dream tank and I'm curious.
 
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Chicxulub said:
Given comparable sizes, do you feel paimas and gators would be a good match? Nothing that I'm equipped to have either, but that's a dream tank and I'm curious.
Click to expand...
On paper I'd tend to think so. Wanna try myself. In practice, I've no such experience yet. It'd be a sight to have these two prehistoric behemoths at 8' in one tank... would make parenting unruly children easier too...

Dloks said:
@vincentwugwg @thebiggerthebetter these are the true MFKer of MFK there are a few more guys these are just my guru.
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Haha... thanks. I learn as much from you.
 
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Landonious said:
Hi, so I have a temperary grow out 450 gallon tank in my garage currently with a super growing platinum alligator gar that is already past 2 feet. he shares the tank (kids pool, so good width and length. He isn't in a glass aquarium) with an arapaima, pacu, and bichir. He isnt aggressive at all and everyone plays nice. I feed them 2 times a day.

My question is have anyone in this forum legit cared for a 4 or 5+ feet alligator gar?? what is your experience. How did it do with tankmates? What tankmates did you have? If you had it in the past, what happened to it?

I love to get some feedback from the gar monsterfishkeeper aquarium.

Please have actual adult alligator gar experience, not copy and pasta of opinions from forums. In our life, we find that people just love to share opinions on things they have no experience with, and unfortunately it happens alot on this forum. People just regurgitate fish species compatibility without actually having experience in it.

By the way, I'm building my 7500 gallon above ground acrylic aquarium next month and will update the community step by step build when it is finished. The tank will have 2 glass sides, 10 feet wide, 20 feet long, and 5 feet tall. The 2 glass sides will need 3 panels of 9 feet by 5 feet acrylic panels at 2 inches thick. Each panel will cost $2500 a piece.

So I would love to hear actual adult alligator gar growing experiences and their tankmates, not just opinions heard from other people and other people.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Mine aren't adults yet... but they are over 4ft long. I've had them (group of 5) for about 3.5 years now. There are a bunch of combinations that you will be able to get away with when choosing tankmates. One of the problems that you might encounter will be the Pacu. Pacus can be quite nippy and gars are not fast enough to avoid them. I had a group of 6 albino pacus with my gars and at first they did well together, but after a few weeks some of the pacu decided to nip the fins of the gars. Had to remove all the pacu.
The tankmates that are doing fine with the gars seems to be big cats(rtc and jau), big aimara and a group of rays. Here is a video from a year ago.
 
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whoa! how big is your tank Vincent? Thats awesome. Tell me, are you the owner of Rare Fishes, cause if u are, I bought 2 Mbus from you. Awesome Video!

Mine is over 2 feet now and im power feeding him. I'm gettin another better grade platinum gar at 12"

Rock on guys! Rock on!
 
okay nvm, i followed to youtube and says its 2000 gallon. Hey those pig nose turtles you have are awesome! are any for sale? I'm gonna finish my 7500 gallon tank in a month and look to stock it. thanks!
 
Also, is that a big dorado catfish you have in that video (2:07 min mark) ?? what kinda catfish is that, looks awesome. Btw, how do u do it man? 5 platinum gars cost alot, how are you so blessed and rich? :O
 
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