Op - what was the living conditions (tank size, tankmates, maintenance) of your male syns that grew faster vs the one in question? Trying to guage if quality of life was better for the previous syns.
I have 4 from COTA, based on size alone 2 male , 2 female. Largest make is 8", females are about 4", grew to this size in little over a year.
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Really varied tanks and tankmates. I had one male which I was trying to grow out but he grew so fast he doubled in size in less than a year to 12"+ in a 75 gallon before I could set up a bigger tank for him. About 20 years ago I had my first male that grew to be about 14-15 inches with a great nuchal hump in a 7 ft 265 gallon (I think that's right) and he lived a long healthy life with a wide variety of tankmates. My last female grew to about a foot over several years in a 125 but she died mysteriously after I came home from vacation. The one I have now is in 195 gallon (60x30x30in) tank with a big fei feng, a big albino sailfin pleco, 6 honduran redpoints, 6 filament barbs, and watermelon pleco. There are two FX6 cannister filters on the tank and I do a 60-70% water change every 5 days. I feed algae wafers, NLS pellets, Cobalt spirulina mysis flakes and frreze-dried plankton. Temp is 78-80. I've always fed a varied diet and performed large regular water changes in all of my tanks. Competition for food isn't an issue and he's not shy about being first in line at feeding time. So..I have no idea what's behind the slow growth rate.
