# Barge Gars



## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

I went to the river for the first time in about six months today to get some photos.. I ended up photographing butterflies and a frog, contrary to the landscaping I had planned to take pictures of.. 

The river has been very, very low. I ran into a barge that was standing at least 15 feet high and had five or six others connected to it. I was looking around at the water, in awe of how close the barges were to the shore (only 1 foot, in some places less...) and I noticed some black and yellow stripes in the water. Upon closer observation, I noticed seven or eight gars all together under the nose of this barge.. Two got close enough for me to take pictures of, and I'm having those pictures developed tomorrow. I'll post pictures when I get them. 

It's a totally random subject, but I just thought it was really cool that these gars let me get so close and that they were just hovering under this barge..


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## mlefev (Apr 19, 2005)

That is pretty cool. The only thing that will get close to people around here are pidgeons..lol.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

Well, I thought it was pretty cool. I LOVE gars.. I've only ever been that close two other times in my life--Once I was fishing and just tossed in a line with a sinker and caught a gar on the sinker, and the other time the river had flooded and the floodgates were opened, letting water from a drainage branch to the ditches. There were 3-5 foot gars swimming right next to me.. Amazing fish, really.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

a gar is a long narrow fish with a mouth like a little crock. http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=gar+fish&ei=UTF-8&fr=slv1-fp


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

Baby_Baby said:


> oh sweetness!


thats one way to describe it buti'm going to go with...cool


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

wow, that's pretty sweet! can't wait to see your pics. I wish I had the chance to see a gar from the wild instead of in my fish tank!


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

-chuckles- they get HUGE, so you'd have to be saving up for a 1000gal+ tank, or a pond. That's funny from me.. "She who keep koi in aquarium.." XD

But yeah, they're kick-butt. It's too bad that so many people hate them around here.  They'd kill the bigger ones, and the smaller ones too if they found them or caught them fishing.


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## solar-ton (Aug 15, 2005)

wow i guess animal rights laws dont cover gars...CURSE YOU BUSH!!!!!* shakes fist*


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## solar-ton (Aug 15, 2005)

lol i know.but people shouldnt kill them there isnt any point in doing it


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Actually there is a point, They eat other native species that the fisherman enjoy catching. It dosen't mean the point is a good one just that there was one.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

I do agree with fish_doc. If you've seen how big those fish can get, you'd see why they are such a menace to the fishermen. 1) Who wants to catch a huge, 5' gar when you're fishing for bass. 2) Who wants to let that huge gar go so it can eat the bass that you're trying to catch. 

Hm.. I think I want to go down and catch one of those gars.. And keep it as a.. "pet" until it gets bigger. maybe I could dig a little pond for it in the backyard and keep it there..


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

lol. bush has nothing to do with it. in fact, and I quote:



> I Know The HumanBeing And Fish Can Coexist Peacefully


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

*My gars*

My gar eating tuna








Same one








A different one








These gars are very easy to keep and I have never had any problems with them. Even when one jumped out of the tank for 24 hours and I found him crisp dry, when I put him back, after about 20 minutes he reabsorbed the water and got his flexibility back. Amazing huh?


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

amelia said:


> 1) Who wants to catch a huge, 5' gar when you're fishing for bass. 2) Who wants to let that huge gar go so it can eat the bass that you're trying to catch.


I DO I DO!!!! That is pretty amazing CichlidMan! I'll have to try that next time I find a jumper :wink:


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

gotta be? naah. am? yes. 

oh, and yes thats a pleco. commons get very large.


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## Orbital (Jun 11, 2005)

I've only see wild gars once, there was a pair of younger gars along the shore line while I was walking along a lakes beach at night with a flashlight. They were pretty small though, only like 10"ish. There is a shop that sells baby gars around here though.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

I had a chocolate albino pleco that grew over 17 inches long.. Pretty neat fish.


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

A chocolate albino?


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

yes... Chocolate albino. They're not very common, and I've only seen them twice in stores. The first time was when I got mine, he was the only one there, and the second time was at Pet-smart.. They had a few. They're pretty plecos. Their bodies and eyes are a light cappuchino color.. really nice.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

No, he died when I went away for a month to camp and he wasn't fed properly and filtration messed up. My mom didn't know how to fix any of it and I wasn't allowed to go home from camp (because they stressed not leaving early as that is negative and such.. I don't know. ) for a day or two.  I miss my lovely fishie..


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