How to quickly grow out wild caught cichla?

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davenmandy

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2012
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I recently purchased a wild caught cichla piquiti azul at close to 6 inches, and a wild caught cichla ocellaris brokopondo at 2.5 inches in length. They are each in their own 20 gallon tank. I need to get them caught up to the peacock bass in my other tank, which are an orino at 8-9 inches, a mono and kelberi at 11 inches, and a temensis at 14 inches. I put the azul in the big tank to start but the temensis would not leave him alone, consistantly chased and hunted him, so he had to be put in a 20 gal. The broko is also too small to be put in with the azul, though I am hoping he catches up quick enough that he can live with the azul for a while. So I have 3 main questions.

1) Is a 20 gallon tank adequate for the purposes of growing out a peacock bass to about the 8 inch mark so I can throw them in the big tank? Would growth be noticably (as in a big difference) increased with a bigger tank? Will the bass stay healthy in a tank of this size by itself?

2) What is the best way to get the largest growth in the shortest amount of time? Right now the azul only eats live, and the broko apparently eats shrimp blood worms and pellets, but I have only got him to eat live. Should I be feeding them live minnows every day and then when theyre close to big enough start training them on pellets? Or should I get them onto pellets right away? I feed hikari food sticks as well as massivore to my other bass, on top of shrimp and silversides, would the pellets provide more growth for the bass then a health supply of rosy red minnows? Is it harder to train them to eat pellets when they are bigger, like is the difficulty to convert them off of live harder after theyve been eating it for a good chunk of their life?

3) How long, considering my other bass are still growing as well, can I expect it to take before I can introduce the small guys to the other bass? Bare in mind they are wild caught so they should grow pretty big.

Thanks in advance!
 
IMO 20 gal per fish is far too small to try and get them to 8 inches. Also, by the time theyre 8 inches the other guys will be larger. When to switch to pellets seams to be a topic based on opinion and luck, but I'd think that as soon as you can get them on pellets do it. Also, I would try to pick up a 55g to grow them out in. 8 inches is plausable there.

Ive had some very good growth on my 2 juvies, averaging 2-2.5 inches a month... I actually had to slow it down so they dont out grow their tank theyre in yet. First, raise water temp to 86-88 if not already. This not only helps prevent ick, but it actually increases their metabolism. Also, Heavy heavy water changes. Water changes is a huuuuge factor in growth. I do mine on sundays, with a small cleaning on wednesday. Im saying at least a 50% water change. This will not hurt the bacteria in the tanks as the bacteria (good bacteria) does not "live" in the water but in your substrate, on your rocks, in your filters etc. Put them on a hardy and thick eating schedule. 3 times a day, morning evening, night. My guys are on frozen, havent switched them to pellets yet. Blood worms with some krill in the morning. Shrimp and talapia after work, krill at night.

So quick recap inb4toolong
1)Raise water temp - 86-88
2)Water changes, small cleaning on Wednesday, 50-60% WC on sunday
3)3 feedings a day -morning: bloodworms&krill, evening: shrimp & talapia, night: krill

You can obviously alter the foods to fit what you feed them. You should get some good results. My fish were growing quite rapidly on this
 
So how long would estimate you could keep 2 juvie peacocks (1-2") in a 55 with the regimet that they are on now?
 
CRfish23 said:
So how long would estimate you could keep 2 juvie peacocks (1-2") in a 55 with the regimet that they are on now?
Click to expand...

Well some of it depends on the tanks dimensions, if its long or tall. I have a 55g long and I put my 2 pbass in there at about 1', and they stayed in there a good 6 months. BUT I slowed them down so i could keep them in there until I had to move. Id say You could get away with 4-5 months maybe? Depending on the width of the tank, you want to make sure they'd have ample amount of room to turn around, and even a 55 gallon long tank is about 12 inches wide, so you figure even if theyre 8-10 inches that they can still swim and move freely. That of course is all bench math and I would suggest to use your best judgment as you start to determine their growth according to tank size. It never hurts to have a bigger tank, but i know 55g are flooding the internet right now and can be picked up cheap
 
I do 50% water changes a day vacuum all the poop and in eatin food. Feed SMALL amounts of food around 6 times each day.

Faster growth rate with many small feelings rather than a couple
Of heavy feedings

Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Redbellypiranha said:
I do 50% water changes a day vacuum all the poop and in eatin food. Feed SMALL amounts of food around 6 times each day.

Faster growth rate with many small feelings rather than a couple
Of heavy feedings

Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Click to expand...

How big is the tank that you're able to do 50% daily? Thats impressive!

Your avie pic, in order to acomplish that, fish with a black background, do they put the light above the tank for the flash??
 
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