channel catfish and gar???

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Bowjo

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Apr 4, 2004
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My son has a new aquarium.We are getting ready to start over because the fish got ich and died.He definately wants channel catfish.He also wants a gar.Will these fish be all right together since they are both predators?What other fish might be allright with these?One more question should I get a test fish first to see if I have got rid of the Ich?I've treated the tank twice since the fish kill.......Thank you Joe
 

johnnyxxl

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Mar 1, 2004
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is it a true gar or a needle fish?

You will be looking at two very large fish down the road. The catfish can reach the 30 plus pounds range.
I have not seen anyone keep a true gar in a tank I have caught them fishing up north they are huge and mean. Something to keep in mind is that the gar also gets kinda big also I forgot about how big they got. If I am not mistaking a gar is related to the pike family of fish which is huge things young adults are a foot long
 
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meangene714

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Feb 27, 2004
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If you haven't had any fish in your tank for over a week or so, then you shouldn't have any ich. They will die off if they don't find a new host within a few days. Don't know exactly how many. Those 2 fish should be ok together if they are the same size, but what johnnyxxl is right and you might want to take that into consideration if you haven't already done so. Good luck.
 

Avatar of Jeff

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Mar 15, 2004
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I wouldn't place these two together unless you have a mammoth tank. I've heard gar can be terrortorial and if they are the same size, the catfish is no match. If you don't have a large tank, it's just going to stunt their growth.

Both species get very large. In the wild, I've seen channel catfish approach 40 lbs and gar that hit the 4ft long range. This reflects the smaller species of gar. Some species like alligator gar get 6ft plus.

They're both aggressive carnivores, especially the gar. You should also note that many gar species have sharp outward pointing teeth and could injure the scaleless catfish just by contact if they got rough.

One note here is that feeding would be easy. Just keep copious amounts of feeder fish or crustaceans like shrimp or crayfish so they don't have to compete.
 
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