alligator gar aggression

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The Bass Hole

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 29, 2011
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Long Island, NY
i know alligator gar are aggressive but what im wondering is if they are as aggressive when theyre young or does the aggression increases exponentially with age?

my lfs can order me a 4" spatula so i just wanna be careful for the sake of my other fish that are all around 4"
 
The Bass Hole;5130386; said:
i know alligator gar are aggressive but what im wondering is if they are as aggressive when theyre young or does the aggression increases exponentially with age?

my lfs can order me a 4" spatula so i just wanna be careful for the sake of my other fish that are all around 4"
Click to expand...

My gators started showing aggression around the 12-13" mark...(At 4" they shared the tank with 4" Pearl Gouramis with no issues)

"Aggression" in Gator gars (or any gars) is inversely proportional to availability of food.

In my opinion, if the Gators are never left hungry, they will probably not attack other fish...

However, estimating the food intake of a growing gar can only be done by trial-and-error. And an "error" in estimating wheter your 13" Gator is full will mean you lose one or more of the tank-mates.. (I lost 6"-7" Silver Sharks to 12-13" Gator. The 6" one was eaten. They killed and tried to eat the 7" Shark but failed..)

(Please read-up and research Alligator Gars to ensure you have or can provide the necessary care for them..)

Good luck,
 
My Alligator gar is regular feeding frozen fish. In the aquarium to swim "live" fish. My gar is capricious. Sometimes even a week not eat any live fish. Other times, one each day. I still I feed frozen food as well. Gar size: 16.9"

In Slovakia:

Môj Alligator gar je pravidelne kŕmený mrazenými rybami. V akváriu plávajú aj "živé" ryby. Môj gar je nevypočitateľný. Niekedy aj týždeň nezožerie žiadnu živú rybu. Inokedy každý deň jednu. Ja stále kŕmim rovnako mrazenou potravou. Gar veľkosť: 16.9"
 
I think the problem would be that your other fish are already the same size as the baby gar would be. Gators grow like weeds. so it's not unrealistic it could grow in a week or 2 large enough to start looking at the what where just the same sized tank-mates as food. a properly fed YOY gar grows like a weed no matter the species. but gators will get almost 2' if well cared for while most other species will stay in the 12" growth range. And to fuel that growing baby... tbh I don't htink it's possible to make it 100% "safe" for other fish. It might be doable with a florida gar but I'de still not be surprized or upset if I lost a fish or 2. a gator.. I would be surprized if it didn't eat something.

my experiance with most fish, not just gar is the aggression you see as juvies is often a prelude to true aggression as sub-adults and adults. a species that is "somewhat" aggressive as a juvi is often a tank-banger as an adult. Fish get more aggressive as they get older, not less.

There are of course exceptions to the rules, but never bank on getting lucky.

Also on that note young gar can also be very delicate, so having very aggressive tank-mates that may bully the gar could easily stress it to death.
 
Sidrock;5130492; said:
My gators started showing aggression around the 12-13" mark...(At 4" they shared the tank with 4" Pearl Gouramis with no issues)

"Aggression" in Gator gars (or any gars) is inversely proportional to availability of food.

In my opinion, if the Gators are never left hungry, they will probably not attack other fish...



Good luck,
Click to expand...

That is a fine opinion based on your experience but reality is that this is not regularly the case. When you have looked at them over a large sample size (over 20 fish) you will see quickly that this is not the case at all.
 
we just bought an aliigator gar and it is not that aggressive. Sure it eyeballs other fish but so do my florida gars. my florida gar are more aggressive when they were younger too, But as they got older and longer they don't really pay much attention to my other fish. I have a 6" peacock bass with them right now, And they do try and pick him off but he turns right back around and bites them. In my opinion i think that if you have fast and aggresive fish in the tank you might have better luck.

I wont be surprised if he does try and eat other tank mates because im expecting it. I do keep my gar in community fish tanks, which they do have a chance to kill other fish. As they get older they will most likely try, but having him for a week and hes perfectly acclimated he has not tried anything yet.
 
What is Aggressive? That is something more need to think about and really just stop using that word. It really does not work with gars nor many other fish. Half the reasons for so called "aggression" are just poor husbandry the other half is poor understanding or anthropomorphizing of a species.
 
These are big power fish fish with big powerful jaws. It might give you some idea of the power behind those jaws, when feeding my 3 footers if they are particularly hungry you can hear their jaws snapping shut on the food.
 
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