I have been out fishing in several creeks around here recently and I usually see a Gar or two. These are really fascinating fish. Is there even a possibility of keeping one of these in a tank, or do they all get too big. I was thinking that an aquarium with 1 Spotted Gar and maybe a few large Sunfish would make for a cool tank. I don't know a lot about Gar, but I do know they're not small. What would be a minimum tank size for a setup like this?

I have never kept gar, however, have plans to in the future after all of this schooling is done and have read quite a bit about their husbandry. Fortunately, we have a couple gar experts on here and hopefully they will chime in later.

However, to get you started and to answer your question, gar can be kept. The most well behaved gar species are the longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) and the spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus). It is advantageous to get them at a young age and execute the "stepping up" method, so the gar do not get too much acceleration in a large aquarium and smack into the glass and break their "back", which they are prone to.

I would think a medium sized (especially a spotted) could be housed in a 125 gallon for quite awhile. However, if you plan on an adult gar or two I would suggest looking into a 240-300 gallon aquarium for their adulthood. Gar appreciate much of the same habitat as sunfish; tons of structure, live dense plantings with a gravel or sand bottom.

Also, make sure they have room to breach as their swim bladders can function as lungs and will often come up to "breathe" air. The previous is more or less an evolutionary trait which has allowed them to live in oxygen deprived water, however, any aquarium with airstones and a filter will provide ample oxygen, but still allow enough room for them to breach.

They are a rather hardy species, but as with any species, provide the best water quality you can, especially when young.

Have fun enjoying the wonderful Lepisosteus,

Blake

Edited by blakemarkwell, 15 June 2009 - 01:08 PM.

I would love to have a Gar, but space doesn't allow that right now. a 300 gallon tank is huge.

300-gallon would be a distant future deal, if you only wanted to keep one or two gar, you would be fine with a 125-gallon aquarium for a long time, which is still big, but far less than the 300, obvisously.

Blake

I'm going to disagree and say that a 300 gallon tank is not adequate for long-term keeping. Even the smaller gar species can easily grow to 30"; a standard 300 is only 24" wide. A wider aquarium or stock tank of the same volume might work.

Where is Richard when you need him?

I think it's all about tank footprint and not capacity. I keep a Shortnose in a tank of 5'X2' sparsely decorated and it's fine in my opinion. A Longnose would be out of the question in this tank as far as I'm concerned.

Where is Richard when you need him?

I think it's all about tank footprint and not capacity. I keep a Shortnose in a tank of 5'X2' sparsely decorated and it's fine in my opinion. A Longnose would be out of the question in this tank as far as I'm concerned.

Been too darn busy for my own good Uland...

With gar it is very much about footprint and that foot print is very species Dependant. Spotted (Lepisosteus oculatus) Flordia (L.platyrhinchus) and Shortnose (L. platostomus) will all do very well with a 2' x 5' footprint. This however is not a maximum tank size and these fish, depending on a variety of factors, have potential to get larger. Each fish needs to be monitored and bumped up in tank size if needed. They all do not get huge and taking wild max sizes as a guideline is a bit of overkill. The average size is much smaller and in captivity it is even more so.

A longnose is not suited to this particular setup but for a small time. Longnosed just get way to big way to fast.. A Spot or Florida will remain rather small in captivity for a very long time. Neither of these fish are really all that big. They are not small but they are manageable in a home aquarium. I do not suggest Shorts as they are quite nervous and touchy fish. With more Gar experience, I would recommend them but not as a first one to play with. Shorts are Rather particular fish and not a start species.

A Spot or Florida with a few Suns? well yes you could do it.. I think you could get away with a 2' x 5' and be able to house these with a couple suns. I do have to note though that gar are not really all that good of community fish and neither are sunfish. This may or may not work out well.