Do fish grow fast in a smaller tank?

[rust9000]

Hi,
I was wondering if fish grow faster in a smaller tank, i have 2 x 3" juvi tem pbass, and they are in my 60g at the mo, but i was wondering if i put them in a 10g by them selves and did a 20% water change every week and feed them daily on bloodworms if they would grow fast? then i can move them into my 60g again and then in my 120g once they hit about 6". What are your thoughts on this? Thanks

 

[carsanfish]

I dont think that they will grow faster in a smaller tank in fact i think it would probly slow it down becasue there would be less space for them to move around. so i wouldnt put them in a 10 gallon.

 

[Euge]

I dont think that they will grow faster in a smaller tank in fact i think it would probly slow it down becasue there would be less space for them to move around. so i wouldnt put them in a 10 gallon.

i agree. Only reason i would put a monster fish in a small tank is if it was small and its only coz its easier to feed em

 

[rallysman]

IME fish grow faster in bigger tanks. I think a lot of it has to do with water quality/stability.

Also, I think you should get them eating more than just bloodworms if you want them to grow fast.

 

[CHOMPERS]

I agree with everything so far, but would like to add that I have found that fish in bare bottom tanks grow faster because they can find the leftover food. In gravel tanks, once the food falls between the gravel, it is gone. In tanks with small substrate such as sand, the food rests on top and can still be found.

I have also seen growth rate nearly double or tripple in fish housed in larger bodies of water. I use to rescue baby goldfish from my pond and house them in 10 & 15 gallon containers. The growth rate of the fish that could escape the mouths of the adults grew much faster than the ones in the smaller containers.

 

[Killerhap]

Tank size do not stump the growth of fish, only bad health does! Your small tank can stump the growth of the fish if you have really bad levels and you do everything wrong and stress out the poor fish, then it will stop growing and finally die.

 

[Zorro]

I think bigger tanks let the fish grow better. But a small tank will just make the fish look big.

 

[rust9000]

i only ask as i bought 4 angel fish at the same time as my friend, he put them in a 10g and put mine in a 30g and his are litrially 4times the size of mine, he cleans his tank every month or so, i do weekly water changes, and he just feeds them flake where as i feed mine bllodworms, brineshrimp and pellets, i dont understand, but i guess ill leave my bas where they are, thanks

 

[softturtle]

I tried looking for the article but I couldn't find it. I think it was a Jack Wattley article (I know this isn't about discus but just read) in TFH. Him or a fellow discus breeder conducted an experiment that had a few groups of discus that they put in small and large tanks. The only difference besides the tank size was the WC schedule. In the small tanks, almost 100% of the water was changed every day and the bigger tanks got a less strict schedule(but still up to code for most hobbyist). The fish in the small tank grew a lot faster than the ones in the large tank(and from my understanding- these fish in the small tank were CRAMPED!) Feeding was also the same for both tanks. There was also mention in this article about a similar experiment except it used oscars as the subject instead of discus. This test ended with similar results.

If I can find the article I will list the date of the mag, and you can read it for yourself.

 

[RadleyMiller]

Tank size do not stump the growth of fish, only bad health does! Your small tank can stump the growth of the fish if you have really bad levels and you do everything wrong and stress out the poor fish, then it will stop growing and finally die.

But it can cause kinks in their spine, and spinal problems are BAD.