Anyone been bitten buy their gar?

[Dionysus]

Ive been looking for info on my Florida gars bite strength, but everything I find is about gator gars. I recently got my 17" Florida Gar on frozen bloodworms, beefhearts, and silversides. Its nice not having to put filthy feeders in, but now he waits at the surface for anything to drop in, and snap! Even when I'm cleaning the tank, its much harder to keep him out of my business now.
Just want to know how careful one should be, like could lose a large chunk of finger careful, or could just feel a pinch careful.
I know he packs some power, but wanted to know just how bad it would be if it actually caught me off guard and bit my finger or arm, or ear?

 

[King-eL]

I got bitten many times by my 19" Florifa gar and it doesn't seem to gibe much pressure, but the the teeth sure does hurts. They are like needle sharp and it can draw out blood. Also got bitten by my longnose gar but it didn't pack a punch that much. Not sure what a gator gar can do, but will sure can do some damage.

 

[sbuse]

i haven't been bitten by my gar,... but i got bitten by a wild gar not sure what it was i think in mn we have long or shorts here....it was around 2' and as i was trying to get the hook out it got me...hert like hell i was bleeding like a stuck pig...it was the teeth not the bite presure just like a pike bite...could have used a few stiches but i don't do hospitals so i just tore up a sock to stop the blood and kept fishing...

 

[Conner]

I'm thinking not a great amount of pressure, just enough to get the teeth into the flesh and hold on. Anything small enough to eat wouldn't be able to escape, and they'd soon realize if something was too big to eat. They don't crush prey like alligators do, they seem to eat more like snakes, grabbing something they can swallow easy in one bite, and then maneuvering it around for the easiest entry into their throat.

One of my florida's nipped the end of a finger once. Startled me, because I didn't realize he was there, but didn't really hurt any. Didn't even draw blood, just left a few scrapes in the surface of the skin.

 

[Noddy]

My florida went for my thumb this week, when I was handfeeding him.
And drew blood.
Razorsharp indeed.
The injury reminded me what damage to your skin looks like when a Pike jabs at you.
It leaves tiny rows of cuts!
My fish is only 12"at the moment an I plan on keeping up the handfeeding!

 

[E_americanus]

bite power isn't great, especially on typical captive-size gars. captive gars also seem to have much smaller teeth than those which we see in the wild. the teeth are, however, very sharp and in many cases can easily break the skin. it's more of an issue of puncture wounds/cuts than it is and crushing or detaching.
there's a paper that compared the bite strengths of all extant gars, and one extinct species (maybe more than one extinct one). here's the link to the abstract:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109857191/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
gators and Cubans (as one would expect) had the higher bite strengths, longnose had the weakest--
--solomon

 

[Dionysus]

Wow, didn't know if I'd actually hear from anyone who has been unfortunate to feel these teeth. Those suckers do look sharp. Figured there Would Be Blood. Ive had some very close calls in the past years, but hasn't caught me yet (knock on wood).
I have a small opening in my glass top for dropping frozen food in, but sometime the chunk is too big to fall through, and my gar will start bighting at the glass. Sometimes, he waits for me to try and push it through with my finger,and then "WHAM! Scares the **** out of me

 

[SNRMADE]

I was biten buy my spotted while trying to hand feed prawns.It took me buy surprise and felt like a nasty pin prick.

 

[Noddy]

Strangly enough, my Gar only seems to bite me on accident.
When my wife gets close to the water with her fingers he's allways jumping and snapping at her fingers...and keeps doing that time and time again!lol
Guess he recognizes the hand that feeds him, most of the time that is!

 

[vaine111]

My GF was bit by a spotted gar the other day at the LFS but by my gar I never have.
It only bled when she would push on it.
She thought it wouldn't be that fast.