Are my Geophagus red head tapojos growing even slower than average?

[SandNukka15]

So I had gotten my group of 6 geophagus red head tapojos on February 10th 2020. They were 1.5 inches then and now 9.5 months later they are only 4-4.5 inches.

I know they are known to grow slow but does this seem normal?...

Should I be seeing any spurts?

Pics of then and now

 

[cmsbthebest]

Well I got my 6 around the exact same size and time (February 2020),

and mine are only around 3 to 3.5".

So compared to mine yours are growing like weeds lol

 

[SandNukka15]

Well I got my 6 around the exact same size and time (February 2020),

and mine are only around 3 to 3.5".

So compared to mine yours are growing like weeds lol

Where did you get yours from?


Well one is about 4.5 inches the rest seem to be near 4.

 

[cmsbthebest]

Where did you get yours from?


Well one is about 4.5 inches the rest seem to be near 4.

I special ordered mine from an LFS.

Feb 4th




About 1-2 weeks ago (not my biggest one)


Mine are growing super slowly but may be due to diet honestly. I feed pellets and flakes and these guys always take the flakes 10/10 over pellets which is frustrating.

 

[SandNukka15]

I special ordered mine from an LFS.

Feb 4th

View attachment 1440803


About 1-2 weeks ago (not my biggest one)
View attachment 1440802

Mine are growing super slowly but may be due to diet honestly. I feed pellets and flakes and these guys always take the flakes 10/10 over pellets which is frustrating.

I wish I would of done a black substrate like you. Their colors seem a little washed out in the caribsea sand I used.

I remember in feb when I got mine i beefed them up on blood worms and then starved them until they ate nls pellets. Didn't take long maybe 4 days.

Their staple is nls and omega one cichlid pellets 1mm.... easier for them to eat so they don't keep spitting out... and san fransico bay frozen freshwater multi-pack.

Try cutting the flakes out until they start eating the pellets

 

[cmsbthebest]

I think red head tapajos are one of the few fish that look good with both black and tan substrates.

Problem I have is that I feed flakes to other fish in the tank, and the Tapajos gobble them up while only having a few pellets.

I'm planning to feed them bloodworms and add some nls pellets (currently using Hikari gold pellets and nls flakes) to the tank feeding regime in the next week or two.

 

[robmcd]

4 inches of growth since Feb sounds pretty normal to me. They are really slow growing fish.