Raising and Breeding Needle Nose Gar
male, top, 9". female, bottom, 12"
We recently began trying to raise the baby Gar that out two adults were producing. We attempted to do some research on them on the web as well as in the local library and discovered, much to my dismay, that there was not much information to be found on raising or breeding captive needle nose Gar. There was, however, plenty of information on the wild version, which we utilized to help in our attempt at raising our own. This site is dedicated to the furthering of information on the raising and breeding of the captive type. Any information listed is by our own hand and from our experience and observations as well as reasearch on the wild breed.
First of all what is a needle nose Gar?? It is a long, skinny, silver, fish. With needle sharp teeth, approximately 1/4 of an inch long and an elongated beak, much like a crocodiles. They are tropical freshwater fish. Freshwater speaking for itself, and tropical meaning they need a heated environment, usually about 78 degrees farenheit. There are two versions in the wild, the long nose and the short nose. Which variety the captive breed are, escapes us.
In the wild these fish can grow to be 4 1/2 ft. long and the females of the species can live to be 20 to 22 yrs old. In captivity, who knows. We suppose that as with any other captive breed of fish, they will grow to whatever size their environment allows. As for life span, we would imagine it depends on their diet, environment and care. (anyone having any information on this please e-mail us. We will of course post and give credit to you for any information donated, thank you.)
UPDATE
We think that we found the reason for our inability to keep newborn gar alive: The Ph was much too high. Since we cannot have any more baby gar due to the fact that mama is dead and daddy is gone, we do not know for sure, but think that it is highly probable.
baby gar on day of hatching