How to Buff 'em Up?
- Thread starter H]-[H
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Give em the best quality pellets that you can get for them.What kind of fish are you trying to bulk up?
Increase water changes. Better water equals faster growth.
I agree with azmtns, the best way to get growth are large frequent water changes, in the largest tank possible.
And a good pellet has much more nutrient value than many live foods, just because its live, doesn't make it complete by any means (unless the live food are 1st gut loaded with nutrients and vitamins).
Many large public aquariums, where there are certain fish that only eat squid, or certain type fish, stuff the cavities with rich prepared items in order to get the fish eating those items a complete nutrient package.
And a good pellet has much more nutrient value than many live foods, just because its live, doesn't make it complete by any means (unless the live food are 1st gut loaded with nutrients and vitamins).
Many large public aquariums, where there are certain fish that only eat squid, or certain type fish, stuff the cavities with rich prepared items in order to get the fish eating those items a complete nutrient package.
It's a flowerhorn cichlid.. I only feed it NLS pellets exclusively since the day I got him..
Problem is he's a finicky eater and only eat a few pellets at a time.. Worst of all, I've been keeping him for 1 year+ and nothing's changed..
I know flowerhorns are prone to diseases which is why I kept this one off live food..
My previous flowerhorns all died from diseases..
My water is always superb lol
But yeah, I always keep up with the husbandry weekly..
Since it is a FH, it means a hybrid between A trimacutus and another, maybe a Vieja? maybe Herichthys.
In nature Trimacs are predators living mostly on insects, and snails, occasional fish, but also, when the stomach contents of wild individuals were examined, plant matter.
Leaving out the feeder fish, (for obvious communicable disease prevention reasons), insects such as gut loaded meal worms, crickets, and earth worms would be good additions, but also Spirulina pellets.
And because they may be crossed with Vieja, or something else which have vegetarian tendencies, a high algae (spirulina) pellet may be even more important.
Hybrids "may" be disease prone because their digestive tracts (that evolved to need vegetable matter to clean the gut out (fibers material)), as opposed to the high protein pellets sometimes exclusively given.
In nature Trimacs are predators living mostly on insects, and snails, occasional fish, but also, when the stomach contents of wild individuals were examined, plant matter.
Leaving out the feeder fish, (for obvious communicable disease prevention reasons), insects such as gut loaded meal worms, crickets, and earth worms would be good additions, but also Spirulina pellets.
And because they may be crossed with Vieja, or something else which have vegetarian tendencies, a high algae (spirulina) pellet may be even more important.
Hybrids "may" be disease prone because their digestive tracts (that evolved to need vegetable matter to clean the gut out (fibers material)), as opposed to the high protein pellets sometimes exclusively given.
Do you have a water testing kit? That’s the only way to tell for sure if your water quality is good. Otherwise its just a guessing game.
Only things I can think of to bulk up a fh is raise the temps, change food to a different pellet, put a mirror or target fish inside the tank, keep water as clean as possible (this includes water testing often to make sure it’s clean), and in my experience add some crush coral. My fh did better when I raised the kh of the water and my ph was more stable when I added the crushed coral. And all fish love stable conditions