I have one Festae that has not grown much at all since I got him. I had six originally. I am down to four because the dominant male saw fit to alleviate the competition. They are a year old. The small Festae is barely 2". It is healthy. It eats well and is just as active as the others. I don't understand why it is the only one not growing. Could it be a dwarf?
DWARF FESTAE?
- Thread starter Gruff Master
- Start date
I'm not trying to say that their is a partcular fish in the trade that is a "Dwarf Festae". But I do understand that the condition of Dwarfism occurs in plants and animals due to genetic factors. I am just wondering if this is possibly the cause for my fish's size.HiImSean;4088383;4088383 said:
Aquanero, I received it with six others from a MFK member last October. It now lives with three others in a 120gal. They have plenty of room at their current sizes (between 4.5" and 5.5"). Could it be stunted while the others are growing? The plan isn't to keep them all. I will keep two after they grow out.
Not even sure if it's possible but maybe the dominant fish's hormones is keeping it from growing. Move it to a new tank and let it be the dominant fish it might catch up to the other Festaes in size in no time.
It's not crazy at all... it's actually fairly common...
Anyone who has bred fish for any length of time and has at times kept a full brood and raised them for a while will tell you that runts are quite common.
I have a "blue gene" (het for Blue) Dempsey that is around 3" long at 2 years old... it's in a tank with it's sister born in the same brood and the sister is 7" and has been breeding for the better part of the last year. The runt hasn't shown any signs of breeding yet...
Anyone who has bred fish for any length of time and has at times kept a full brood and raised them for a while will tell you that runts are quite common.
I have a "blue gene" (het for Blue) Dempsey that is around 3" long at 2 years old... it's in a tank with it's sister born in the same brood and the sister is 7" and has been breeding for the better part of the last year. The runt hasn't shown any signs of breeding yet...
I had a robertsoni in a 220 gallon for a year that never got over 3" as well. It happens sometimes.
You could say the species Homo sapiens grows to 7'0+, but the reality is that the majority of them don't get that big, and a few of them stay considerably smaller. Its the same deal for all plants and animals.