Baby alligator gar now growing

[Karalak42]

Hello

2 months ago I bought 2 baby alligator gars who are still about 4 inch long and they don't grow.

I feed em each 2 days 1 cube of blood worms. Water temperature is 18c degrees unheated tank and nitrate level around 10 ppm.

Anyone have a sugfestion(Was thinking about putting temperature at 22 degrees maybe?)

Than you

 

[wednesday13]

IMO blood worms arent very substantial. Try switching to mysis shrimp at the least. You can also cut up shrimp, smelt, and tilapia for them. If they readily take blood worm you should have no trouble getting them on other foods possibly even floating pellets/sticks??

 

[FJB]

Should add other types of food in a rotation. Earthworms, pieces of fish, insects, pellets.
Don't know where you are located. Is 18c the prevailing outside temperature? why bother trying to rise it a little? These fish go through very large changes seasonally, and are well adapted to them.

 

[Karalak42]

Should add other types of food in a rotation. Earthworms, pieces of fish, insects, pellets.
Don't know where you are located. Is 18c the prevailing outside temperature? why bother trying to rise it a little? These fish go through very large changes seasonally, and are well adapted to them.

Outside temp is between 18-25c now here in germany

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

1 cube of bloodworms in 2 days is, I am estimating, about 1/10th of their nutritional need. I'd give them whole little thawed fish or cuts, plus quality pellet. Bloodworms are good for fish that don't grow past a few inches, unless you are made of money and can afford insane amounts of bloodworms.

yes, they would benefit from slow and steady increase in temp to your ambient temps. Gator gars come from areas that experience sizzling hot summers and snowy winters, that is if you wanted to mimic their natural habitat.

 

[Karalak42]

1 cube of bloodworms in 2 days is, I am estimating, about 1/10th of their nutritional need. I'd give them whole little thawed fish or cuts, plus quality pellet. Bloodworms are good for fish that don't grow past a few inches, unless you are made of money and can afford insane amounts of bloodworms.

yes, they would benefit from slow and steady increase in temp to your ambient temps. Gator gars come from areas that experience sizzling hot summers and snowy winters, that is if you wanted to mimic their natural habitat.

OK Thx. Good to know il try some more other foods I guess

 

[Karalak42]

Hi guys. Seems I realy have problem here and never seen this. 3 months now I got my baby gars and still they didn't grow by not even half an inch. Water is clean. I have 2 of em and a spotted gar. I feed em 2 cubes of blood worms a day and now I added an extra cube of krill(small shrimp).
Any ideas? O

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

You have increased the feeding a lot, which is great, from 1 bloodworm cube in 2 days to 2 cubes everyday plus a krill cube.

IDK how big the cubes are, most of them cubes are water and juice anyway, very little substance. IDK how wastefully of not they eat them, gar tend to be stupid and wasteful with feed pieces falling out of their mouths alot.

What is the current water temp in the tank?

My guess continues to be: you feed still too little. As wednesday13 and I have said - bloodworms are for tiny fish, not for fish whose genetics tells them to grow to many feet.

Either feed them each 20 cubes each day or much more sane suggestion would be to give them pieces of fish, pieces of shrimp, pieces that they can easily swallow. You can cut the pieces off say a tilapia filet or whatever the cheapest fish you find available. Or get frozen silversides or other small fish.

Once they feed well on what you want, you may want to presoak the feed in VitaChem or some other solution of vitamins and minerals, because for instance fillets are very poor in nutrition value other than protein.

EDIT: I'd not give frozen solid cubes or fish pieces. They all need to be thawed out first. If you give it to them frozen, this might also contribute to their poor digestion of the feed.

 

[Karalak42]

Ok water temp is 19c
Can I feed em pieces of chicken too? If not il cut frozen shrimp in pieces thawed out. Thx

 

[duanes]

You have neglected to mention the most important factor. for growth, your water change routine.
More than food, all things equal, water changes are one of the most important factors in good growth.
All fish produce growth inhibiting hormones, and in a closed system the only way to reduce them is thru lots of water changes.
If you change 25% of the tanks water once per week, they will grow slower than changing 50% per week.
And if you do 2 50% water changes per week they will grow faster than 1, 50% change, so on and so on.
And although there are no available tests for hormones, the nitrate test is a good indicator of hormone soup concentration, because nitrate is an ingredient in that soup.
20 ppm or higher, is like a thick Campbells pea soup, less than 20ppm but above 10ppm, is like thinner tomato soup, less the 5 ppm (which would be natural for these fish), is closer to a thin broth.