Does breeding fish at a young age stunt growth
- Thread starter moodleymike
- Start date
I made a thread about this awhile ago and the answer was it does slow them down if I remember correctly
Sent from my VS840 4G
Sent from my VS840 4G
I'll give you an example.
I grew out a group of young Herichthys bartoni from 3/4" fry.
A young pair bonded and spawned twice after about year.
They are now approximately 3"
I kept 1 male separate in another tank, so no spawning for him, he was the same size as the other
pair when they spawned, the separate male is now about 5".
separate male below
I grew out a group of young Herichthys bartoni from 3/4" fry.
A young pair bonded and spawned twice after about year.
They are now approximately 3"
I kept 1 male separate in another tank, so no spawning for him, he was the same size as the other
pair when they spawned, the separate male is now about 5".
separate male below
It will slow growth yes. Long term I don't think it will "stunt" But to get true growth potential if you want to speed up its growth its not advised to breed as it does take quite of bit of energy to create eggs, raise the fry , etc.
I remember the discussion on this a few months ago (link below). In my experience it's pretty straightforward that fish that begin breeding on their own at young ages do not stunt their growth; imo if fish end up stunted there's more to it than simply when they began breeding. Whether it slows their growth is another question and ime the result has been not really, or not significantly-- it still largely comes down to the individual fish in my experience. In any case, ime young breeding fish consistently reach expected growth rates and expected adult sizes and I haven't seen a consistent, significant difference between the final size of fish I had in breeding situations and others I had of the same species that were not breeding. I've been doing it a long time and I'm pretty observant with my own fish, so this is an accurate assessment of my experience.
The only qualification I'd add is I simply let the fish do what they do, I don't power feed to accelerate growth or do anything else to hurry them to breed any sooner or more often than they are otherwise inclined. I simply provide reasonably good care and let nature take its course.
But I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate what I've seen in my experience and in my tanks to different conditions of food, water, tank mates, tank size, etc, or extrapolate my experience to species I've never kept or bred, since time to sexual maturity, growth rates to adult size, and breeding specifics vary between different types of fish. (I've bred a lot of African cichilds, a couple types of Cyphotilapia, and several SA species, but no CA species.)
Anyway, imo the biology is more sophisticated than some realize and you can't sum it up with a simple yes or no that covers all the factors involved, all species, all possible scenarios in everyone's tanks, etc.
Link
The only qualification I'd add is I simply let the fish do what they do, I don't power feed to accelerate growth or do anything else to hurry them to breed any sooner or more often than they are otherwise inclined. I simply provide reasonably good care and let nature take its course.
But I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate what I've seen in my experience and in my tanks to different conditions of food, water, tank mates, tank size, etc, or extrapolate my experience to species I've never kept or bred, since time to sexual maturity, growth rates to adult size, and breeding specifics vary between different types of fish. (I've bred a lot of African cichilds, a couple types of Cyphotilapia, and several SA species, but no CA species.)
Anyway, imo the biology is more sophisticated than some realize and you can't sum it up with a simple yes or no that covers all the factors involved, all species, all possible scenarios in everyone's tanks, etc.
Link