Alligator Gar

[Demjor19]

when i lived in Virginia Beach I bought a young alligator gar from the local pet shop. I kept him/her in my 55 gal. community tank. I also fed him a LOT of feeder goldfish so he wouldn't eat any of the others. Pretty much a basic set up, neutral PH of about 7. I had tetras, upside down cats, frogmouth chaca chaca a black ghost knife and lots of others. never had problems with anyone not getting along...but I emphasize, i kept the gar well fed. I've known him to eat about 2 dozen in a day. He /she was 3-4 inches when i got him and when I moved about a year later he was 9-10 inches and getting heavy bodied. I didn't want to risk any of them dying because of the move so i took them all back to the shop where i'd bought them. Jay, the great guy that worked there was stunned when he saw how big all my "babies" had gotten. Gars are not hard to keep but I think i'd go for a pond for them, or at least a 125 gal. tank I cannot believe they asked that price...380.00?!!!

I doubt you actually had A. spatula. In one year being fed like you say...a true Aliigator Gar would be well over 24" long and taking down everything in the tank. Not calling you a liar...just misinformed. Gar are a very commonly mislabled fish (they seem to call anything that looks remotely like a gar a "gar"). Do you have any pics of this fish? Just curious.

BTW...this is a pretty old thread.

[Wild Turkey]

Its an old thread, but this picture says it all about this fish being kept in an aquarium. You couldnt get that thing into a 125g if it was filleted already.



You can keep them in a (very) large pond if you live somewhere where the climate is warm, otherwise they belong in the river where they came from imo.

[guitarest]

I live in S Miss and I find it really hard to believe someone would have a tank large enough for a real alligator gar; in our area the big ones can be near 100lbs. The largest one I ever caught on hook was 89.5 lbs and he was over 5 foot long and almost 24 inches in girth at his fattest point. They are really cool fish to watch in the wild and I would love to have a tank large enough for a gar to actually enjoy his environment.

OK I'm done.........

[Demjor19]

I live in S Miss and I find it really hard to believe someone would have a tank large enough for a real alligator gar; in our area the big ones can be near 100lbs. The largest one I ever caught on hook was 89.5 lbs and he was over 5 foot long and almost 24 inches in girth at his fattest point. They are really cool fish to watch in the wild and I would love to have a tank large enough for a gar to actually enjoy his environment.

OK I'm done.........

Wild Alligator Gars and captive raised ones don't seem to grow the the same sizes. Captive raised Alligator Gars seem to max out around 4-5 feet in captivity (still huge), but I have seen a few people on these forums that have suitable tanks for raising them. Certainly not for the average hobbiest, but people do keep them in larg tanks (several thousand gallons). Fortunately they aren't overly available in the hobby. Since i have been keeping fish, I have only seen one true Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) for sale.

[Laextreme5]

I live in southeast Louisiana and behind my girlfriends house they frequently catch gars, pretty sure it's an alligator gar, if I was I catch a small one, could I potentially keep it and put it in a tank? This is all hypothetical but I was just curious

[Zander]

I live in southeast Louisiana and behind my girlfriends house they frequently catch gars, pretty sure it's an alligator gar, if I was I catch a small one, could I potentially keep it and put it in a tank? This is all hypothetical but I was just curious

Depending on how large your tank is, you might be able to keep a small one for a fairly short period of time. And then when it gets too big release it.

However I would steer you towards getting a type of gar that remains a size you could feasibly keep its whole life, like a Needle Nose Gar.

[Crispy]

this thread was started 3 years ago.