Needle Nose Gar

[Brad]

I didn't start keeping fish so I could be a breeder, but when my 2 needle nose gar turned out to be a breeding pair, laid eggs, and the eggs hatched, I was fascinated and wanted to raise the babies. So far my record is zero out of many hundreds. They live for an average of four days, then die. I can only think of two reasons that this is happening.....either they are starving to death or they are so deeply inbred that they have no chance of survival. The parents came from the same batch, so inbreeding may be one problem. The babies seem healthy and active while they are alive. I use Liquifry#1 for the first couple of days, then add newly hatched brine shrimp after the second day. Is it possible that they cannot find their food? any thoughts or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

[oscarbartoni]

What is your water conditions? What size tank do you have them in and what temp do you keep the water at. How often and how much water do you change when you do water changes, (a water change is not just adding water as it evaporates, but taking out some such as 10 to 20% once a week and replacing with declornated water of the same pH and temp or as close as possible). Where as these fish are not bred in captivity a lot like guppies or angelfsh, I would not think that inbreeding would be a problem here, but rather a dietary problem. When you fed them brine shrimp did you notice if they were eating them? What size are the baby gars when they are first hatched and do they carry a yoke sack for a while? If they do then they do not need to be fed right away but if not they sould be able to catch and eat newly hatched baby brine shrimp. If you were feeding frozen brine shrimp the baby gars might not go after because it did not move right. Or you might be trying to feed the wrong size of brine shrimp. <img src="confused.gif" border="0">