Ever realize your fish are a lot bigger than you thought they were?

[Chicxulub]

I had that moment today. I was checking on the growth of my little tanzaniae tigerfish today. I pulled it out of the tank and measured it and found that he's somewhere between 5 and 5.25 inches long total length. I've been saying to myself for a while now that he was gonna go into the big tank when he was between five and six inches long. So, I plopped him into the big tank.

Now, I haven't had any fish out of the big tank to measure since like August. Just by eyeballing, I figured my payaras were about six inches and my Goliath tiger was about 8 or nine inches. The Goliath is the biggest fish in the tank.

Well, when that little tatf went into the big tank, he was less than half the length of the Goliath and only about 1/3rd of the girth. The Goliath's tail is nearly as tall as the poor little tatf was in length! Both payaras were nearly twice as long as the little tatf and the juruense was more than big enough to eat the tatf. I was absolutely shocked at how large my fish were!

Needless to say, I put the little tatf back into the growout tank.

Have any of you ever had a similar thing happen? I mean seriously, my fish are a LOT bigger than I thought they were. I was absolutely shocked!

 

[krichardson]

Yes.It seems I only notice my grow outs progress when I net them and bring them out of the water.Also,When a fish dies and I have to remove it I notice how big it had gotten ...hope that does not jinx me.

 

[Crazy mike]

Yup when introduced my female jd to the big tank I didn't realize how much bigger my jag is compared to her. Lucky my male jd came to the rescue or she would have been eaten


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[dscort]

i had a similar shock the other day, i cut strips of tilapia to hand feed my fish in my big tank, and decided to give my convicts some too. i thought i cut some really small pieces for them b/c my bluegill take huge pieces.... needless to say i had to net the what i thought was small pieces out... i guess my expirence was the opposite b/c i thought my cons were a whole lot bigger... now they just get tilapia scraps that even sunfish wont eat....

 

[Slippery K]

I hate seeing pics of people netting their fish to measure them, but to each their own. I just wait till they come close, use a tape measurer and eyeball from there.

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[Chicxulub]

I hate seeing pics of people netting their fish to measure them, but to each their own. I just wait till they come close, use a tape measurer and eyeball from there.

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Well I don't normally net my fish just to measure them. I netted this guy out because by eyeballing it he looked big enough to go into the big tank. Since he was out, I figured I could measure him. I was shocked to see how big the other fish were once he actually got into the big tank though. :/

 

[Divinehammer]

I hate seeing pics of people netting their fish to measure them, but to each their own. I just wait till they come close, use a tape measurer and eyeball from there.

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I do the same thing, I was surprised when I measured my common pleco in my 90 gallon thought it was only 8" found out it was 12".

 

[steelcityflathead]

Yea I never felt comfortable. Stressing out my fish,but I guess the love for your animals is greater then most people think about.

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[Slippery K]

When my pbass died, I thought he was soo much smaller than he actualy was, when I stuck my hand in to pull him out he was over 9", I was eyeballing something like 6. I never realized how much a little glass and water can distort the size of an animal.

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[Naos1984]

I never liked netting a fish to measure it. I just measure them when they are near the front. The only time I measure them is during a transfer or if they die. I guess your reason for measuring them is justified.

I have had conflicting experiences when doing my measurements. First, I added a new GT thinking it will be larger than what I already have. I also thought my first GT never grew much. BAM! When I placed the new one, it is dwarfed by my older one. Always thought the older one is about 6" when in fact he is 8". Oh, I was able to measure the older one coz I was supposed to give it away and that's when it dawned on me. When my male ocellaris-monoculus died, I thought he is about 16-17", he's short of 14" when I measured him. When an alligator killed my tinfoil barb, I have always told myself that the barb is only 5.5". Measured the barb and he's a little short of 8". The galss and the water is very deceiving. I can say that it makes our fish seem smaller than they really are. Some of my colleagues would look at the top of the tank and say they really are larger than how they look looking from the side of the tank.