Can stunted catfish recover?

Do you have a picture of it, do you know how big of a tank its in, and do you know how long its been in a small tank?

Of it was putninto that tank as a frshly harvested hatchling six months ago, then it will almost certainly recover fully. Catfishes have shown time and again in the scientific literature to be able to recover shockingly well from extreme stresses such as this. Odds are good that if you bought him and took good care of him, he would be the fastest growing fish you've ever seen. He'd likely catch in size a fish that went straight into a good tank on the day they were imported. Cats that have this ability to recover are the Ines most farmed.

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knife fish fanatic said:

I first saw him as 6 inches he is 12 inches now


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Actually if he's been there six months he's not doing that bad. He should be a bit bigger surely, but he could be a hell of a lot worse. He's probably reasonably healthy. The tank's obviously too small, but they seem to be attending him well.

Stunted fish can recover some of their lost growth, but the overall impact depends on the duration and severity of the stunting.

Barbels aren't an indicator at all.

Many species will recover if the growth loss is not for too extended a period. In the wild, it's normal for some species to lose access to sufficient food due to season, migrations, disasters, competition, etc. for many weeks or months. In tests, those species rapidly recovered when given the right conditions.

Having said that, I am skeptical that a fish kept whose growth was held back for 1-2 years would ever fully recover if those were the first 1-2 years of it's life. Maybe some one has tested that or has raised a fish that recovered from that, but in the wild, species can indeed be permanently stunted from events that last 1+ years.