bichir growth stagnated?

[johnnytaboo]

Hey guys,
I've been reading alot around this site recently, but I haven't posted in quite some time. My question pretains to my lovely silver gret bichir. I've had him for about 8 months now and I bought him when he was a little baby. He grew quickly to the size he's at now and began to kill the (peaceful) tankmates he was raised in. I had to move him after that into his own tank which was smaller (from 30 to 10 gallons). Now I KNOW that's too small for him when he's full grown, but could it be stunting his growth for now? I'm just alarmed because it seems like he should be growing more than he is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fruitbat]

You don't mention how big he (or what species it is).....but bichirs do go through a real growth spurt when they're juveniles and then slow down as they approach adult size. At 8 months it should be still growing. Of course....you don't know how old it was when you got it. I often use 10 gallon tanks as grow-out tanks for my smaller bichirs until they get up to about 6 inches in length and then move them into 20 gallon long tanks until they get to about 10 inches or so. From there it is into a larger tank that is more appropriate for their adult size.

-Joe