Hujeta gar

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a predatory fish that does best in a group of three or more in a large tank, 210 liters or bigger, and counts as difficult to keep. It patrols the top of the water and can be nervous, so the lid must be secure. Feed meaty foods like live or frozen fish, shrimp, and large insects, and wean it onto frozen where you can. It mostly ignores fish too big to swallow but will eat anything that fits in its mouth, so size tankmates carefully.

In the wild

The hujeta gar comes from rivers and streams in Venezuela and Colombia, often in flowing water with wood and plants along the edges where it hunts near the surface. It is a top-water predator, so it wants length and surface area more than depth. Give it a long tank, a tight lid, and open swimming room up top with some cover at the sides. Soft to neutral water with a pH from 6 to 7.5 is fine.

Good to know

Ctenolucius hujeta is in the family Ctenoluciidae and has the long body and beaky, pointed snout of a small gar, reaching about 25 cm. It is a surface-oriented ambush predator built for grabbing fast prey. Breeding in aquariums is barely documented. It is generally considered of Least Concern in the wild.

Did you know

It hunts at the surface and can launch clear of the water to grab prey, with leaps reported up to around a meter. A loose or light lid won't hold one in.

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