Gar is type of freshwater fish that belongs to the gar family. There are 7 species of Gar can be found in the eastern part of North America, Central America and Caribbean. Some species of gar are collected from the wild and sold as aquarium fish. Speaking of their growth, aligator gars can reach about 8 to 10 feet in lenght and 120 to 300 pounds of weight that's pretty much more for an aquarium. In terms of appearance an alligator gar has greyish- all of green back and yellowish green or whitish belly. It has black spots on the fins, the body is covered with diamond-shaped scales which forms strong armor. Gar has elongated alligator like snout filled with numerous pointed and very sharp teeth. It has an elongated torpedo shaped body and a symmetrical tail.
Speaking of their diet, alligators will eat just about anything that fit in their mouth. When they are young, alligators eat animals like small fish, frogs and insects. As they get larger so does their food adults eat a variety of things including fish, mammals and birds. Aligator gars can easily survive in the waters with low oxygen content, thanks to the ability to gulp fresh air and use its swim bladder as lungs. It can even survive to around 2 hours outside the water with all of these its lifespan ranges from around 26 to 50 years with females having a longer lifespan than males.
The alligator gar is one of the most aggressive fish out there that probably attracts many monster fish lovers. But as beginners, you must be well aware of its nature and size it can grow up to monster sized. There are instances when people buy them as small fish around three to four inches fascinated by their appearance but eventually end up having problems such as aquarium limitations as well as inability to feed to its requirements. We advise to feed at once in two days with something like fish or prawns we managed to train it to eat high-protein fish pellets daily. And once in a week we feed it with a whole fish or something of that kind.
Another interesting fact about alligator gar is that you can train them easily to interact with you better be precautious an important that you should keep in mind while raising a gar is the aquarium setup itself. Always be aware that your alligator gar can jump out if its tank at any moment since it is really an agile fish, it tends to jump out of its tank or even bump as hard as to injure itself on your aquarium walls.
So when you prepare tp get a gar please consider this facts. These gara have a very powerful jaw, they can eat any their tank mates who can fit into its mouth. So whenever you plan to put an alligator gar into a community tank, make sure all the other fish inside are larger than the gar itself. This would save you from unwanted losses.
Thanks for reading guys. See you on the next article, bye..
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