Gar

[cane76]

i almost put this gar to sleep a while back due to a serious spine injury
im glad i couldnt do it because he has almose fully recovered

 

[Gankutsuou]

better watch your hand around this bloke then

 

[clinton ><>]

WHTA DO YOU FEED YOUR GAR AS I LOOKED ON YOU TUBE AND PEOPLE WERE FEEDING THEM GOLDFISH AND ONE PERSON FED HIS A LIVE MOUSE

 

[Gankutsuou]

I dont think he does live feeding....

probably prawns, shrimps, and oher things available at market.

 

[clinton ><>]

ok i just thought it was kinda horrible to see a mouse swiimming around and the gar toying with it then just takes it out

 

[cane76]

better watch your hand around this bloke then

at 15" he could give a nasty bite

 

[cane76]

WHTA DO YOU FEED YOUR GAR AS I LOOKED ON YOU TUBE AND PEOPLE WERE FEEDING THEM GOLDFISH AND ONE PERSON FED HIS A LIVE MOUSE

the gar feeds on frozen mussles fish and prawns
no need for live foods with gars unless you enjoy that sort of thing

 

[Rubix]

very impressive gar glad you kept him alive, thanks for sharing

 

[clinton ><>]

how big do they grow and about how much do they cost

 

[cane76]

they get 2-3 feet long
small ones are about £20-40

 

[zoekin8yg]

Ive never seen one before, they are really interesting!

 

[blue_betta]

Ive never seen one before, they are really interesting!

same here, they look a bit prehistoric! like one of them ichtheosaur(sp?) thingys

 

[Rubix]

they get 2-3 feet long
small ones are about £20-40

this species perhaps? i saw a gar this summer (a florida gar i believe) that was at least five feet long, minimum. the thing was a monster. there were a few smaller ones also that were perhaps three feet.

 

[nmonks]

It varies quite a lot. The species (and hybrids) sold to aquarists seem to level off around the 60 cm mark under normal conditions. If they carry on growing after that point, they do so only very slowly. Even specimens in public aquaria rarely seem to be more than about 80 cm. These are typically things like Lepisosteus oculatus (the species traded when I kept gar) and Lepisosteus platyrhincus (the species most often sold nowadays).

The really big gar is Atractosteus spatula. Maximum reliably recorded length is 3 meters. Such specimens are probably never found nowadays thanks to habitat destruction and fishing. To reach this sort of size, the fish has to live for many decades, and that just doesn't happen any more. But they do get reported quite frequently around the 2 meter mark, and I've seen a specimen in a mangrove swamp chasing crabs that was certainly within the 1-2 meter range.

I will make this caution though: estimating the size of a fish in the water is extremely difficult. That's why scientists give so little credence to sightings by untrained observers. It's difficult to judge scale without some familiar object nearby, and also the refraction of light at the air-water interface makes measurement difficult. Usually, people overestimate the size of fish they see in the water.

Cheers, Neale

this species perhaps? i saw a gar this summer (a florida gar i believe) that was at least five feet long, minimum. the thing was a monster. there were a few smaller ones also that were perhaps three feet.