Member

Posts: 183
From:austin,tx, usa
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-07-2003 11:26 AM         

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I have a 55 and have about 30 fish. only a couple are 3-4" most much smaller. I have an additional air blower and feed them several times a day, flakes, frozen bloodworms, sinking algae pellets. insects when I can catch them for my insect eaters.
My Question is... my fish seem to grow slowly. I have given my dad, who has a 10 gal with a bubbler and biowheel, who, in my opinion WAY overfeeds them. his tank is cloudy all the time, sometimes overcrowded, lots of algae, old filter.. YET his tank is like a super growth machine! I have on several occasions given him a couple of my fish, who grew very very slowly over a year's time, to see them DOUBLE in size in a month in HIS tank! WHY? is it the overfeeding? not only that, the cories keep making babies, even with the cloudy water he rarely changes. I change mine every 2 weeks. It's just strange...
any ideas???

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Posts: 58
From:new jersey
Registered: Nov 2002

posted 05-08-2003 10:19 AM         

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30 fish in a tank thats 3 to 4 inches?.. my guess is its crowded in your tank and their not getting enough oxygen

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Posts: 183
From:austin,tx, usa
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-08-2003 10:08 PM         

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It's certainly something to consider, and I have added up the inches of all my fish and they come out to real close to the number of gallons-55 inches/ 55 gal. and there's the big blower we've always had in the tank making lots of bubbles. I've tried to be careful not to overcrowd. I know my dad does.. like 20 inches of fish in a 10 gal. and yet they grow like monsters!
still, it's gotta be something. my fish always seem very hungry.. I assumed all fish do.. but maybe not?
maybe I'm not feeding them enough?

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posted 05-09-2003 02:23 AM         

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The three main things to getting fish to grow are lots of oxygen, space and food. In nature they grow rapidly. The reason for this is they live with lots of space, lots of water surface for oxygen exchange, and they eat 24 hours a day. Remember, don't feed your fish any more food than they can eat it five minutes, but do it as often as possible. I have found with fish I had difficulty in getting up to size I increased the oxygen flow and it made a big difference in the rate of growth. An overcrowded tank can also stunt their growth. I did an experiment with Oscars once with overcrowding to see if it could permanently stunt growth. I overcrowded for six months. After which I placed the Oscar in a large heavily oxygenated tank and fed heavily. After one year he finally did achieve a slightly smaller than average size when fully grown, but his rate of growth was extremely slow. Also you might want to check water hardness. From your descriptions of both tanks I would expect the water in your dad's tank to be much softer which could help account for growth rate.

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Member

Posts: 183
From:austin,tx, usa
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-09-2003 09:08 AM         

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Oh wow! Water hardness? I think that might be it! I live with city water where the water is jokingly called "liquid rock". Haha. My parents have well water and a water softner. Thanks for the awesome post.. Never considered water hardness.. not sure what to do about that though. lol
thanks!!!!

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Posts: 806
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posted 05-11-2003 01:07 AM         

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One other thing I didn't think about but your reply reminded me of. You might want to check the salinity of your water as compared to his. You should add some aquarium salt to each of your tanks. The normal recomended dose is 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of water. Most water softener systems use salt to soften the water.

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Posts: 183
From:austin,tx, usa
Registered: Dec 2002

posted 05-12-2003 05:05 PM         

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Thanks for the great info! I had been putting in salt, but not enough. I couldn't remember if it was tsp or tbsp. Thanks again!

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Posts: 806
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posted 05-13-2003 01:57 AM         

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Conversion factor:
3 tsp = 1 tbsp

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