increasing growth rate yes to water changes

[candidpets]

does feeding live really increase their growth rate? IS there any food out there that will help? SOMe of my fish are growing so slow. Okay so i had a red terror in a 180 gallon this was a baby, then i had another one same size in a 37 gallon both 2 inches just wanted to grow them a bit. THE ONE IN THE 37 gallon is 3 x the size as the one in the 180. I don't get it. I water change every other day.

IS there any other method other than live that will make their growth rat sky rocket? SOme of my fry are growing too slow, but the fry that had black worms previously living in they tank are huge.

 

[tlindsey]

does feeding live really increase their growth rate? IS there any food out there that will help? SOMe of my fish are growing so slow. Okay so i had a red terror in a 180 gallon this was a baby, then i had another one same size in a 37 gallon both 2 inches just wanted to grow them a bit. THE ONE IN THE 37 gallon is 3 x the size as the one in the 180. I don't get it. I water change every other day.

IS there any other method other than live that will make their growth rat sky rocket? SOme of my fry are growing too slow, but the fry that had black worms previously living in they tank are huge.

pops duanes Stanzzzz7 BIG-G

 

[freak78]

In my opinion you can't beat water changes for growth. I do fin level water changes in my altum Tank twice a week and their really putting on size.

 

[candidpets]

every other day water changes for full tanks with growing fry excessive? i take about a third

 

[freak78]

I don't think so.

 

[BIG-G]

This can be a complicated topic.
Clean water and type and quality of food. Of course will effect growth. But I believe there are a few other things that can have an effect.

Size of the aquarium. Water temperatures. Tank mates. What kind of start the fry had, I believe this will effect the fishes early development.

So the fish in the larger tank hasn't grown as fast as the other. So we can assume that the tank size isn't a factor in this situation.

Higher temperatures will speed up the metabolism, which in turn will require more food and more maintenance.

This has in my experience a diminishing return so to speak. You can raise temperatures to say 80
or 82 and see an increase in activities but pushing higher doesn't yield better results and too high can be dangerous to the animal.

Tank mates can cause stress. If the other fish are larger especially. I have read that larger fish can produce chemicals to suppress growth of competitors. I don't know but as far as I know no one has ever proven that.

I have noticed with my Festae that if they are good parents, which mine were, they would let the fry feed off their slime coat.
I did a little experiment with a batch of fry mostly by accident I will admit. I removed half the fry and raised them separately they were fed the same foods as the fry with the parents. About a month later the fry with the parents had doubled the size of there counterparts.
Same temperatures same foods other then what the parents were doing for the fry with them.
Now this was by no means scientific because the moved fry were in a smaller tank and didn't control every single detail but I do believe the parents gave their fry a better start in life that led to better growth.

Just to touch on the water again. I do believe that a fish kept in water with high nitrates but is other wise clean will show some diminished growth as well so I would definitely monitor the nitrates and keep the as low as possible.

 

[BIG-G]

I know that's a lot to read but I hope it gives you some ideas.
I'm sure others will have their take on this subject. So maybe you will get some better ideas.
One more thing . Sometimes it just comes down to genes. Some fish just don't grow as larger as others.

 

[RD.]

Tank mates can cause stress. If the other fish are larger especially. I have read that larger fish can produce chemicals to suppress growth of competitors. I don't know but as far as I know no one has ever proven that.

Not too sure about hormones/chemicals etc released by fish, but at least some growth inhibiting substances are real, cortisol would be one. Suppressed growth in stressed fish with elevated levels of cortisol, has been well documented.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Agree with everything that's been said so far.
I would not try to speed growth beyond what is normal.
op,have you considered that the slower growing fish could just be female and the larger fish in the other tank could be a male?
This could be a reason for such size difference if they are the same age.

 

[Grinch]

I think this sums it up nicely. Flexing my line-drawing skillz