Anyone have experience with these in stocked ponds? Looks like I am getting some next week. Most will be housed indoors but some will be kept in 3/4 acre pond. I have kept spotted gar which are easy but my understanding is these critters are different.

That sounds like a lot of fun! I assume that they would be similar to muskie in ponds. Personally I'm too far north to know much about gar.

Not on purpose I wouldn't. Different strokes, different folks.

Number to be used low with animals removed next spring. Impact will be short term.

so what's the story?
Where are you getting them from?
Why only short term?
where are they going?
and why?

Missouri Department of Conservation needs growout space. They want fish up to a size suitable for stocking into waterways. Looks like all culturing I may have a hand in is going to shift indoors owing to bio-security concerns. We have a couple very same ponds that I was wanting to use. One could use some predator action on intermediate sized sunfish while the other is out of balance with only LMB, Goldfish and Grass Carp. Latter would need considerable stocking with bait minnows or even trout for winter to keep the gar in good growth.

SMH

SMH not in list of acronyms?

Means = Shaking my head.

I'm not a fan of A-Gar. I sure don't want to catch one.


No disrespect intended, they are just not a fish I'd want to conserve. I put them in the same category of cockroaches, rattlesnakes, and mosquitoes. More of a pest than a benefit

I am not a fan of a lot of things but do like to see diverse and healthy native systems.

Yes, I understand. I edited my post while you were typing yours.

Farmall,
Alligator gar are top predators and a great gamefish. I would like to have one around to take care of the GBH that visits my pond.

They are different than the common longnose gar.

The ones like I may be baby sitting are still very much Great Blue Heron food.

Jim,
I knew that. But, it would be interesting to see a big one in a pond. I don't think it would survive though. They like big rivers like the lower Arkansas, lower White, and lower Mississippi. The Arkansas rod and reel record is 240 pounds at 8 ft 2 inches. They do get over 300 pounds. A 327 pound one was caught by net in an oxbow off the Mississippi River.

I think they could handle pond life fairly well. My understanding is they can handle oxbows well which pretty much a pond.

Back home in Indiana (not intended to be a joke), my parents have a 1/2 acre pond in back yard that has had the same Spotted Gar in it since 1992. My nephew indicates is was still present this last July.
For four years prior to being placed in pond, I kept it in an aquarium feeding it mostly on pellets. Fish was 11" at time of capture from pretty deep water by hand.

How big did that gar get in a 1/2 acre pond? Pretty cool that it's lasted so long.

A little over three feet. It has been caught many times but I have not seen it clearly in the last decade. I do not go home as much as I would like. That pond was special for White Crappie as is had consistent recruitment.

I wonder if alligator gar could be used to help manage excess LMB reproduction in pond environment. AG are slow growers, though, and likely would be just as happy to eat BG.

I think an AG would be just like a flathead catfish after it reached a large size....eat everything else in the pond.

Then you would be regarding the LMB simply as forage.

Everything less than 10-15 pounds would likely be forage for a 5 foot AG.

There are too many LMB in that size range.

you mean *not*?

I was joking with a dry mannerism.

Darn it I was going to ask can I fish in your pond.

Jim, I think that's pretty cool. I hope they all do well!!

If spotted gar and paddle fish can be feed trained why not AG? It would be interesting to try it.

The AG are already feed trained to my understanding. Pellets used are 3/8" so biggish.

I've lived in Arkansas now for 30 years I have fished a lot of it's waters and Gar have always been considered basically a nuisance trash fish. I've caught some in the 4 foot range in a few oxbows in the Arkansas river and talk about tear up your bait... if you can get it back that is. They don't fight nothing like Muskies they are stiff as a pencil and boney as can be and might give you 1 or 2 good baby runs and that's about it of course that's just the reg long nosed gar. A Muskie is in a whole different class IMO. I don't know that they AG would even go after a GBH it might but just because it has Alligator in it's name doesn't mean it acts like one...lol

RC

AG are an awesome fish just to see swimming around. Not good for fishing, not bad for anything either, they are just an unusual part of the ecosystem.

Cross between a minnow and a T-Rex. Used to be common, but they have been wiped out by folks who "hate 'em". I hope we get them back in our Texas watersheds.