Centrepiece fish with Florida gars
 

Hi guys, I'm looking to set up a 5x2x2.5ft tank and as of now these are the fishes I have in mind:

2x Florida gars
1x Tiger shovelnose catfish

I've read that most people have good experiences keeping the tiger shovelnose with gars.
I'm looking for a fish that will swim in the mid section of the tank, able to become the centrepiece fish for my aquarium and also able to comm with the 2 Florida gars.
I'm not interested in datnoids nor arowanas, so I'm hoping if anyone has any other suggestions?

I've considered getting an African pike or a red pike, but I'm not sure if they are able to comm with Florida gars.

Hoe abt dorado?

Lively mid section swimmer.will complememt slower gar amd catfish v well.

Thanks for the suggestion! My friend recommended it too but I wasn't sure if it'd comm well with gars!
It's definitely one of my options tho!


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With TSN, you basically opt out many choices as they get quite large & fast. They will start eating tankmates that cant grow that fast.

With a 2ft width tank, I am not sure if the gars will be restricted in the growth. They will have a hard time turning around. My alligator gar grows from 6 inches to nearly 3ft in 2 years. It is really powerful... I always get totally wet when it decided to give me a cold bath :o

From what I've been reading online, Florida gars are quite different from alligator gars!
I chose Florida gars because they are the smallest species of gars. They grow up to 24" if I'm not wrong!


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florida gars dont grow too big and they grow far slower than alligator gars :)

i've kept 5 pcs, growth became slower as they grew.

red pike would be nice.

Hydrocynus vittatus or Hydrocynus goliath or Hydrolycus armatus?

Hmm I've read that gars consider fishes that are silver in colour as food. So I'm not sure if VATF or GATF would work... and don't grow as fast as gars do they?


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But would it attack my gars? I'm only afraid the gars will attack my TSN 😂


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Size compatibility is important. Need to plan / think ahead.

Exactly what I'm trying to do now... so should the gars go in bigger than the TSN or the TSN bigger than the gar?

As of now this is the sequence of how I'm planning to add my fishes in so they have higher chances of living together peacefully:

Starting from a juvenile TSN
And maybe 2-3 weeks later until it's accustomed to my aquarium then I'll add in a juvenile Dorado (slightly bigger than the TSN).
Another 2-3 weeks later then I'll add in my 2 Florida gars. (I'll make to sure get gars that are similar size to the TSN)

Do y'all think this will work?


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one of the way to control growth rate is feeding, doesn't mean u buy the fast grower smaller then it wont grow faster, catfish grow very fast if there are plenty of food available but if u restrict the feeding to the top tier fish and not much left over then better control of the TSN growth rate.

Red tail gourami ?

How you made any headway with your tank yet, Ryan? Sounds like it would be pretty interesting to see.

-Kamran

Soon! Will be getting the tank in December and as of now, the current plan is:

1 red belly pacu, which will be the first fish into the tank,
2 Florida Gars
1 tiger shovelnose catfish
1 Dorado
And the last to go in will be a channa.
And if possible, I might want to add a motoro ray into it.

All of them would be at juvenile size. Entering adult size, I might give away the pacu depending whether the other fishes attacks it or not.


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Sounds like quite the undertaking. I wish you luck, and be sure to post pics!

-Kamran

Hey, does anyone know what kind of lighting or positioning for the lights do I need to get this kind of effect?

I'm looking to have this turned on 24/7 and only when I'm feeding do I turn on a full beamswork light.


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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f06dbaa2dc.jpg



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i have my florida gar with silver dollars and blood parrots among other fishes

Did you end up figuring it out, Ryan?

-Kamran

Nope... still no clue how the lights manage to give that kind of effect


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Hello!

Here's an update of my progress so far:

I've finally set up my tank and has been cycling with cycled media from my friend's tank for a week now.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...71de3145b6.jpg

Bought 2 nice looking driftwood which I've soaked for 2 weeks prior and most of the tannins have been removed.

However when I started filling the tank with water, both driftwood floated up.
So this is how my tank looks currently:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2ec86962b6.jpg

I've added 1 Spotted Gar and 2 Golden Tinfoil Barbs which can be seen from the picture above.
Now I'm just waiting for my driftwood to sink, and tank to fully cycle!

My current plans are to have 2 spotted gars, 1 atabapo red pike, 1 catfish (of which I haven't decided, but I might go with a TSN) and maybe a motoro stingray.
Once the 2 tinfoil barbs grow bigger, they would be transferred to my friend's tank.

Anyone has any suggestions for medium sized catfishes?




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Congrats on your new set up, it is looking good. As for the lighting effect, it is likely that the width of that tank is quite big, maybe say 3ft or so, and it is likely that there is a single tube white light towards the back of the tank which gives that effect. Have experienced similar with my own set up in the past. hope this helps..

as for tank stockings, i would personally recommend buying something which could live in from start to beginning, unless you are the type which likes to play around and experiment around on what you'd like to see in your tank. :)

Hello guys!
Ever since 10th Dec, my tank has cycled fully using established media.

I've fully stocked (maybe slightly overstocked) my tank for now, but I do plan to sell off a few of them when they get to adult size!

Currently I have:
1x 7" Spotted gar
1x 5" Spotted Gar
1x 4" Peacock Bass
1x 4" Iridescent shark
1x 3" GATF
1x 3" Irwini Catfish
3x 2" TFB
1x 3" Royal Farowella
1x 9-10" Atabapo pike cichlid (Can't really ID. I bought it from some guy online.)

Anyone can help me ID my pike?
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...48dd1403b6.jpg


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Here is a full tank shot taken on
31 January 2018!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a8342abf48.jpg


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