I have a question about disease and fish growth. Is it possible for a fish to get a disease and then get cured of it and the have it's growth permenently stunted by the disease? I ask this question because I have a Trout Cichlid male who got Popeye several months ago and I cured him of it (he almost died until I found the right medication). He has since recovered and eats well and is healthy in all other respects but he doesn't seem to have grown at all in the past six months or so and the funny thing is is that the female that I have for him was half his size when he got sick and now she's slightly bigger than him. He's appx. 7 inches long with alot of growing left to do (I hope anyway) but if he is still growing it's at a Glacial like speed. Does anybody have any advice for me on this? Thanks, Scott.
A QUESTION ABOUT DISEASE AND STUNTED FISH GROWTH
- Thread starter scottgeeze
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I'm not the expert when it comes to this, but I would say that it could be likely. What are the details? Tank size? Water Parameters?
Tank size, 180 Gallons, Water peramiters, not sure but I do weekly water changes of 50% to 90% from the tap which is treated with a water treatment directly into the tank before I put the fresh water back in. This probably isn't the best way to do things but I have no way of holding that kind of volume of water in vats for a week or so before I use it.
Well, growth rate is influenced by growth hormones (that may inhibit growth of other fish), water conditions, food intake, temperature and presence of stressors (particularly this one which prompts the fish to release growth inhibiting hormones). When a fish becomes stressed, norepinephrine and epinephrine are released in response to stress, something that can occur due to environmental conditions that influence its health adversely. Until, the stressor is removed, the growth hormones will inhibit the fish's growth thus they grow less than they should have but a growth spurt can be expected later on.
Thanks for the info about that. My Champ. was getting pushed around by the much bigger Frontosa so maybe that's having something to do with it. When the Frontosa does that now he gets put in a tank all by himself for a month or so and after doing that a couple of times he's stopped being mean to my Champ.