Aligator gars kept in a pond?

[TheCrazyFishLady]

This is completely hypothetical and really meant as a joke. I have no experiance in anyway with gars (since I have never owned one) and have never even heard of this.

I was telling some friends over breakfast that I would love to have a pair as a pet. And boys being boys were joking saying I should have a pond that I keep them in (similar to a koi pond?) and then there wouldn't be a neighborhood cat problem ever again.

I thought it was comical, but it got me thinking. Would it be possible to keep them in a pond? I live in Atlanta, so they would have sort of a similar to natural temperatures during the summer. I'm just curious to know.

And me owning gars is probably decades from now. Come on, I'm scared of my pleco. haha

 

[Bige]

It is completly possible. You would have to watch temps and probably need a heater. But sure you could do it. I have had an alligator gar in a 1000 gallon pond for 5 years. He minds his business. I will eventually move him to a larger pond when he gets out of hand. But for now he is cool. He doesn't even eat the koi. Not sure what he eats but its not my koi that I like. There are other gar that dont get as big that you could do as well. But gar like alot of flow, like a river. Mine just swims straight toward the flow the entire day. He is about 2 1/2 feet long. Dont worry, I have 2 huge pond/tanks that can house him. But he would be smaller than my 3 foot long blue cats.

 

[The_Desacrator]

It is completly possible. You would have to watch temps and probably need a heater. But sure you could do it. I have had an alligator gar in a 1000 gallon pond for 5 years. He minds his business. I will eventually move him to a larger pond when he gets out of hand. But for now he is cool. He doesn't even eat the koi. Not sure what he eats but its not my koi that I like. There are other gar that dont get as big that you could do as well. But gar like alot of flow, like a river. Mine just swims straight toward the flow the entire day. He is about 2 1/2 feet long. Dont worry, I have 2 huge pond/tanks that can house him. But he would be smaller than my 3 foot long blue cats.

Wow. I wish I had your life.

What are gar.

 

[thincat]

I had an Aligator gar in my goldfish bowl for about 10 years until the bowl got old! Not......what a great thought!

 

[Jason7894561230]

If im not mistaken Gar fish can get to about 14 feet long. And are a harmless fish aslong as you dont annoy them. They have razor sharp skin and teeth but dont use them to kill.

 

[BigJim]

I've seen alligator gar kept in tanks when they're small. Ever hear of arapaima gigas? I've seen them kept in tanks too and they'll dwarf an alligator gar. I wouldn't keep a fish that big, but some people do it successfully. Google Monster Fish Keepers and look at some of their setups. A 125g is a grow-out tank over there.

 

[TheCrazyFishLady]

Yea, I've been on their forum. I would absolutely love having one and thanks for the information. I was kind of worried that they would take out any stray cats or other fish... but, I guess I was wrong.
I will definitely consider that in the future. I just thought that such a huge fish would prefer being outside, instead of a tank.

 

[Bige]

I have friends that live in clute, tx. They have 10 footers that spawn and roll right off thier dock. In a river that is less than 15 feet wide. It is 80 feet deep though. It washes in saltwater then tide goes out and turns fresh. Very cool. So when I got my gar I thought he would grow very quickly. But this was not the case. He was 6 inches when I got him and he is not growing very quickly. So those 10 footers must be very old. Even though they are called alligator gar, they do not seem too aggressive. Although I dont think I want to swim with them.

 

[Wy Renegade]

We kept on in a 100 gallon several years ago for a 3 or 4 years with convict cichlids. He left the cichlids alone, but would happily eat any goldfish we dropped in the water.

 

[thincat]

I had an Arowana that I bought at about 4" and it grew to about 2' in my 55g tank. Every time someone would walk by the tank it would splash so much water on them that I had to move it to my outside pond, About a year later I started to find feathers floating in the pond and could not figure it out. I was sitting having my coffee and I saw a dove fly down to the pond for a drink of water and then the big splash as the arowana leaped out of the water and took the dove into the water.

 

[Etunes]

Ive owned gar and arowana as i love keeping monster fish. I plan on building a indoor pond in the future to keep monster fish. I owuld suggest keeping a smaller species of gar though such as spotted gar, florida gar, or longnose gar.

 

[TommyLiNy]

Aligator Gars can get HUGE!!! They dont like alot of water flow. They prefer slow moving to stagnant pools of water. They are ambush predators and sit and wait for prey. They very rarely swim around and have never heard of them swimming in current. I had one that I had to get rid of, he was starting to eat everything in my tank. I highly doubt you have an aligator gar in with goldfish. Maybe a Florida gar or short nose gar. I had mine in a 125 and he grew to almost 3 feet. It ate a 8" shovelnose a 5" peacock bass killed a large hi fin pleco and chased an arowanna out of the tank... It was his time to go lol. I think a pond with gars would be SICK!!! Think of what you could feed them and how big they could get

 

[Crepe]

Down here in the houston zoo we have a small/pond lake dedicated to alligators and alligator gar. The fish in the pond are ~6'-10' long.

 

[TommyLiNy]

Theres a few videos on youtube with some monster gars in aquariums. Look under Monsterfishkeepers they also have a website. Crazy tanks and fish some people have.