Pretty cool on the spotted gar research. Should be lots of fun and always interesting.
Certainly a favorite fish for me, all those gars, the great prehistoric beasts. Ive had plenty of encounters with them while seining and snorkeling and they are all treasured.
I raised a 4 incher from a post office delivered box from BG Granier several years ago. My first official postman delivered fish, i was quite amazed one could "mail" a fish. However i soon became concerned because the gar would not eat the easily obtained gambusia and i was forced to buy and keep live tiny goldfish and guppies on hand to feed it. But it was fascinating to observe it while feeding. After ever patiently and slowly easing up to a tiny fishes side, quicker than you could blink it would have a tiny fish in its mouth. That little gar would twitch a small color swatched finage beyond its anal fin, kinda like a cat, taking the prey's attention away from those tiny teeth. Snap! A couple or 3 quick Gullet Alignments. and then a Gulp & Gone. One day i dropped some freeze dried krill in the 10 gallon tank and the little gar took to eating those readily making my pet and bait store runs much more convenient. It would never eat gambusia though, how odd is that? Do they taste bad? I will have to get someone to try one on our next outing. Maybe roasting with a bit of olive oil.
Later i moved it to the cement pond where i enjoyed watching the gar while snorkeling. It was well patterned and lurked in the shadows, under the raft, amidst the anacharis, high and low and all between. Just how many fish could a gar eat? My pretty fish were seeming to disppear regularily and the last straw was when Geoff Kimber was visiting and his son pointed out my "no longer little" Gar with my favorite Logperch in his mouth!
After a few days of net swiping I eventually captured the now 18 incher and moved him to the corner chamber that houses the gravel filtration pump. Every so often i would toss in dead minnows or such to him. In that chamber were also several small sunfish which he never, ever ate. Ive always been mystified by that and figure that a sunfishes shape and extended spines and rays probably made for an unpleasant swallow. Or maybe they were just friends.
I'm curious what is found in a spotted gars stomach? Certainly they are full of long cylinderical shaped bodies. But sunfish?
Ranger Bob offered to put him on display at the Bay Mountain City park near Kingsport. Bob takes care of several nice native fish displays and im happy to say Mr. Spotted Gar is still doing fine. If you make it up there tell him hi and drop in a minnow or two. I really miss the beast, but, i like my minners and polywogs more.
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