Hey I just joined and have no idea where to put this so I'm trying it here.
I have a 2.5-3 inch delhezi bichir that I have had for ATLEAST 6 months and he has grown at most 0.5 inches... Has anymore ever heard of this happening before? My understanding is that bichirs grow a massive amount of their size in the first 6-12 months. I feed this tank daily to ever other day a large variety of frozen and prepared foods such as sliver sides, fish eggs, mussel, bloodworms, plankton, krill for frozen and prepared foods like Hikari carnivore pellets, aquacarium carnivore sticks, azoo max growth and max breed, various algae tablets and sinking pellets in addition to the flake, pellet and freeze dried to the non bottem dwelling inhabitants. I see him eat every time and he's one of the first to eat. It's a 55 gallon aquarium at 77°F. It's moderately to heavily planted. The other inhabitants are ctenopoma, festivum, African butterfly fish, striped raphael catfish, clown loach, couple plecos and zebra knifefish. All fish are juveniles right now and will be moved to bigger tank if need be. All of the other fish are growing very well and showing amazing colouration and temperament. None are showing any signs of being unhappy or unwell. Even the bichir is not except he's not growing. I have seen no aggression toward the bichir. Highest I've ever seen nitrates in that tank has been 30. Does anyone have any idea why he's not growing? I've heard that the dominant clown loach will release something into the water like a hormone or something that will prevent other clown loaches from growing much. Is it possible that could be happing and is somehow affecting my bichir? I've not heard of it affecting other fish before...
I have a 2.5-3 inch delhezi bichir that I have had for ATLEAST 6 months and he has grown at most 0.5 inches... Has anymore ever heard of this happening before? My understanding is that bichirs grow a massive amount of their size in the first 6-12 months. I feed this tank daily to ever other day a large variety of frozen and prepared foods such as sliver sides, fish eggs, mussel, bloodworms, plankton, krill for frozen and prepared foods like Hikari carnivore pellets, aquacarium carnivore sticks, azoo max growth and max breed, various algae tablets and sinking pellets in addition to the flake, pellet and freeze dried to the non bottem dwelling inhabitants. I see him eat every time and he's one of the first to eat. It's a 55 gallon aquarium at 77°F. It's moderately to heavily planted. The other inhabitants are ctenopoma, festivum, African butterfly fish, striped raphael catfish, clown loach, couple plecos and zebra knifefish. All fish are juveniles right now and will be moved to bigger tank if need be. All of the other fish are growing very well and showing amazing colouration and temperament. None are showing any signs of being unhappy or unwell. Even the bichir is not except he's not growing. I have seen no aggression toward the bichir. Highest I've ever seen nitrates in that tank has been 30. Does anyone have any idea why he's not growing? I've heard that the dominant clown loach will release something into the water like a hormone or something that will prevent other clown loaches from growing much. Is it possible that could be happing and is somehow affecting my bichir? I've not heard of it affecting other fish before...
