HELP!! Broken Back Alligator Gar

Question
Me and my dad love fish and he has 4 tanks in the house. He recently bought a baby True Alligator Gar. He put it in a small, roomy coratine tank, to get bigger so we can put him with our other Gars in our big tank. One day coming home from work, he found the Gar bent, with its lower back facing downward. My dad went to our local petshops (where we normally go to buy supplies and fish) they say it naturally smacked itself into the wall of the tank. He waited a while to see if the Gar would grow out of it, but nothing has happened yet. I tried to help him so I did some research. I only found how a Gar can break its back. He also tried to straighten its back out manually! Is there a possibility that can actually work? How can I help fix the Gar's broken back??

Answer
Hi Jazmine,
Ouch! Its interesting that the gar is stil alive and hopefully able to swim. I wish I could tell you exactly what to do... but if we're dealing with a broken back... I'm afraid you won't be able to fix it back manually (like fixing a dislocated arm on a human) I feel something like that would take some sort of surgery by an experienced fish vet..Which are rare and expensive. And there's really no telling if anything could be done even then.


I found this video of gars that have 'broken backs'... Does it resemble your gar's condition?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5_y3oqnhss

And here is another video I found of a gar with a broken back even more pronounced -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blhV4THBkY

It definitely sounds like it happened due to being in a small tank. Gars are very fast and if spooked or hunting they can get overly excited and bash themselves into decorations, the sides of the tank or even the hood. It can be hard to prevent.

As long as the gar is still able to swim and eat and doesn't seem miserable then I'd say he'll probably be just fine. Maybe a little odd-looking though.

I hope all is well and I hope this helps!
Susan~