# Alligator gar?



## tyoung3949 (Mar 17, 2012)

I have a gar. I am curious is there anyway I could get him to eat something besides live feeders? How healthy would other food be? and What could I get him to eat?


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Visit your local fish market. The many fish I have kept like Salad Shrimp (wash well), Crab and Lobster. Feed only cooked, fresh has a lot of juices and can pollute. Remember that Gars are not really tropical fish but come from the SE USA. I know they live in the Missisippi but I don't know about other streams.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

I'm glad you want to keep him. I felt bad posting in the other thread, but you can't release a fish.
Sooo, here is a trick I used with pike gouramis, a really hungry fish predator that looks like a gar but is way smaller. It *might* work with your guy.
You get a long stainless steel skewer and you spear some seafood - a shrimp, a frozen fish thawed, whatever. Avoid all land living foods and keep it aquatic. You then look like a total nerd by playing puppets with your fish - you move the speared food in front of it like it's alive. If he takes it, you are in business. You can then see what he likes, buy it somewhere cheap, put it in the freezer and get to know that fish really well.
With my pike gouramis, it took several days beforethey got hungry enough to agree to be fooled, and they never REALLY bought into it. A gar is more aggressive though. It might work.
Use a long skewer - gars can probably do some harm. I wouldn't want to use a toothpick.
If you breed something like a convict - it will take 3 months to grow large enough. Plus, it has dorsal spines for defence- I've heard of convicts surviving in piranha tanks. You can use baitshops for live fish, or if you have a local Chinese market, you can find some neat frozen fish foods cheap there, although they aren't intended as fish foods. The selection is better than most western groceries.


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