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I just added my fish yesterday, monday december 27, and he has not eaten anything yet.
Is this normal?HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP

What have you learned about the Needle Nose Gar before adding him? What do they eat - live or dried foods? Frozen?

What are your parameters in this tank? Has it fully cycled with ammonia, nitrite at zero and nitrates less than 40ppm?

What is the pH? What pH was the tank from which he came? What is the temp?

What else is in the tank with him in terms of fish? How about the environment? Does it comprehend the Needle Nose? What size tank is it? How is the filtration - lots of current, too little current?

You may want to copy/paste these questions and others may have more for you. These are the kinds of things you can ask yourself or others will ask you in trying to get to the bottom of the situation.

Read this link and see if anything strikes you:

http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/allpets/fish/needlefish.htm

Note the need for live foods. If you haven't added live foods, then you may need to get a very pregnant guppy from the fish store and hope it drops its young very soon. It will buy you time.

Also, ask the fish store what they were feeding him.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 28-Dec-2004 23:04

needle nose gars are strictly predatory and will only accept live fish as a food source...and keep in mind that it will only eat fish small enough for it to fit in it's mouth and swallow.

If it's the Xenocara dolichopterus species of Needle Nose Gar, the popular Gar for hobbyists, they will only eat, as mentioned, live food and will not accept dry food...

Feed a few feeder guppies every day and watch your Gar reach its max of 12 inches.

--garyroland.

if fed well, they can reach 16 inches.

i have two of these bad boys and one eats rosy barbs as soon as i put them in and one waits till i leave the room. so yours may be a picky eater but make sure he eats.

rosey barbs? that's a pretty expensive meal

correction (rosy red minows):%):%)

my bf had one (before it got eaten by a marbled goby...). i think it took a couple days before it would eat, but then it only ate live food (guppies or goldfish) give it a day or so more (if it hasn't started eating already) and i'm sure it will be fine