about 1 1/2 months ago now I introduced my 8" male jack to a tank of juvenile cichlids, getting ready for my big January upgrade (it was a test, to see if he would tolerate them, surprisingly and to my delight he has, and with no aggression...yet). Before adding him, my Firemouth had shown very little growth, even though I had him for about 5 months prior. I got him at about 1" and he was at 1.5" when I added the jack. Now 1 1/2 months later he has doubled in size to 3" at least. Non of the other juvy's did this, is there a possibility that its do to the big jack's presence, or is this just a sudden growth spurt that's unrelated to the jack?
Is it possible? or is it coincidence?
- Thread starter eatingleg4peanut
- Start date
Hmm.. interesting topic i'll be sure to follow responses, cuz I had bought a firemouth I guess a couple months ago and other than two .5" growth spurts he's still around 2 inches got him at 1", would love to see him grow a bit faster
well as far as i know FM are slow growers but i've never kept them so i dont know first hand, but it very well could have to do with the dominance hierarchy in the tank being rearranged that fueled a growth spurt, i have always noticed that when growing out juvies of the same or different species, the dominant fish always grows exponentially faster while the most submissive fish barely seem to grow at all, so it could be that the large jack brought about the confidence in your little FM to become more dominant towards your other juvies and so gain a growth spurt, but then it could also just be a natural growth spurt, some fish will grow like that, not seeming to grow for awhile and then suddenly jump forward, there are also many other factors that come into play however, did you start doing more water changes when you added the bid dempsey, did you change anything with their food? these could all be contributing factors
I'm not sure on FM's either, but I do know they're a smaller species and it seems to take some smaller species some time to reach a certain size. My Convict hybrids (Convict x HRP and Convict x Cutteri) are growing slow, my Cutteri I had grew slow and my HRP was a slow grower as well. They will go through spurts. My Dempsey's are due for another spurt. Probably will especially now that they're in a bigger tank. As will my other fish in the same tank.
Just curious, what do you feed your fish and what is your tank maintenance like?
Just curious, what do you feed your fish and what is your tank maintenance like?
I did up my 25% weekly change to about 40%. Also added another HOB filter. He was one of the more dominant in the tank although in some cases he was less than half the size, keeping a 3" GT, 3" Pearl cichlid in check, but my female jack was 4" and definatly dominated them all. But now the female spends all the time with my 8" male. As for feeding, patterns havent changed, but maybe it because he became big enough to fit shrimp pellets in its mouth.
eatingleg4peanut;4666780; said:
I'm pretty sure the water changes helps a bit too. I really believe that helps fish a lot. The bigger the tank, the bigger the WC and I think that makes the fish grow a bit faster. But this is just my opinion. Diet is also key, so are the genetics of the fish in question.
yeah i would definitely account it more to the bigger water changes, its really amazing how doing larger/more often water changes help fish grow much faster, and yeah if he is big enough now to eat the shrimp pellets then that would help as well, though things are full of protein and help boost growth, so yeah i would chalk it up to that and the extra water changes
I think a bigger tank always makes the growth rate faster. My BP who was first in my 30 gallon as a baby grew slow, then when I put him in my 80 gallon with my oscar he grew like crazy. Now he's a good 8" - 9". He's chunky too.