Pale Longnose Gar

K

Karinza

Newbie
Dec 23, 2004
33
0
0
39
Virginia
Hi,

I have a longnose gar (about 6 in. long) in a 55-gallon tank with another longnose gar (about 4 in. long). There is also a pl*co and a number of feeder fish at any given time.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the longer gar was incredibly pale, almost ghostlike. He was acting normal. The next morning, his color seemed normal again, but I put some general fish cure-all stuff in the water just in case.

Now, tonight, he looks ghostlike again. I thought he was acting normal, although my fiancee swears that he saw him try to bite the smaller gar.

Does anyone know what this could be? If it's some kind of disease, why isn't it affecting the other fish in my tank? He doesn't have any gaping wounds, although he seems to have red spots around his head and tailfins. I don't see any stringy stuff hanging off of him either.

Thanks in advance!
Karinza
 
What are your water perimaters? Ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. How often do you do water changes? What else are you feeding them besides live food? Have you noticed if his poop is white or different looking?
 
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 20
pH: 8.0

I know the pH is a little high, but this is normal as our water is rather hard. We do a 25% water change every weekend.

I'm not feeding them anything besides feeder guppies. Someone at the LFS suggested crickets about a week ago, but when we dumped them into the water, they jumped up through the filter and out into the room! :eek: That was a pain to clean up.

His poop doesn't look any different, though he did poop out an entire fish a few days ago. That was pretty weird. I didn't know that could happen.

Thanks!
Karinza
 
Well, feeder fish can be diseased and more often then not, they are. Feeders are very bad to feed fish unless you breed them yourselves.

And I hope you have a better than for the Gars, seeing as they will grow to 3 feet minimum and need a minimum of 900 gallons per gar.

AND GET THAT OSCAR OUT OF THAT 10 GALLON TANK. Put that in the 55 gallon after you return the gars. The Oscar will grow to a good one foot long and couple inches tall and NO it will not grow to the size of the tank!!!!!
 
Well, I am upgrading the gar to a larger tank in a few months.

My 10 gallon is usually a breeder tank for feeders but my oscar was sick recently so I was using it as a temporary hospital tank.

We were planning to transfer him back to the 55 gallon today.

Thanks!
Karinza
 
I suggest picking up some other types of food for the gar. I have never kept personally, but the fella could be getting burnt out on the guppies, which basiclly have no nutritional value. try frozen beef heart(by SFbay company) frozen bloodworms, freeze dried tubifex, shrimp pellets, sinking wafers for omnivores (hikari makes a good one called -what else- 'sinking wafer' with an orange border on the package, my bichir loves em). Thats all I can really think of ewothout knowing too much about those beasties, maybe try your luck on http://www.aquaticpredators.com - they have some experienced gar keepers over there so check it out. good luck- nuri
 
Yea, what tank size are you going to keep the gar in? Might want to feed it some other things, like frogs or crawfish.
 
Nuriel: That is one awesome site! Thank you sooo much for pointing me in that direction.

I downloaded some pictures of the gars to the message board and was told that they probably are not true gars -- "false" gars that pet stores try to sell as real ones. Fortunately, these fake gars don't grow as large as the real ones do, so maybe I won't have to upgrade to a bigger tank after all!

Thanks for all the suggestions! :)
Karinza
 
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