My Bass Just Aren't Growing

[hillbilly]

Honestly, a 75 gal. tank is small. Not even 75 gals. with stuff in the tank. If you were only doing one 50% water change a week, your fish were no doubt using up essential minerals from the water long before you did a water change. Filtration is irrelevant, as are nitrate levels when it comes to fish uptake of minerals. The water can be clean, and still lack the minerals needed for growth. This is the same reason you should not use straight RO water in your tank without remineralization. In the future, if you grow out any more fish in such a small tank, I would suggest a 50% water change at least twice a week, preferably every other day, in order to give the fish the best opportunity for maximum growth.

 

[High City Rida]

Honestly, a 75 gal. tank is small. Not even 75 gals. with stuff in the tank. If you were only doing one 50% water change a week, your fish were no doubt using up essential minerals from the water long before you did a water change. Filtration is irrelevant, as are nitrate levels when it comes to fish uptake of minerals. The water can be clean, and still lack the minerals needed for growth. This is the same reason you should not use straight RO water in your tank with remineralization. In the future, if you grow out any more fish in such a small tank, I would suggest a 50% water change at least twice a week, preferably every other day, in order to give the fish the best opportunity for maximum growth.

I agree with this statement. But I know when he picked up a few of these Cichla and I would say you hit the point I think affected them the most. I have a few other theroies also but I was doing twice a week WC and I do 50-75% WC just because I got used to it. My Azul which we got at the same time is 11 1/2''.

 

[bassinmike85]

Honestly, a 75 gal. tank is small. Not even 75 gals. with stuff in the tank. If you were only doing one 50% water change a week, your fish were no doubt using up essential minerals from the water long before you did a water change. Filtration is irrelevant, as are nitrate levels when it comes to fish uptake of minerals. The water can be clean, and still lack the minerals needed for growth. This is the same reason you should not use straight RO water in your tank without remineralization. In the future, if you grow out any more fish in such a small tank, I would suggest a 50% water change at least twice a week, preferably every other day, in order to give the fish the best opportunity for maximum growth.

i agree..i had a 72 gallon and learned quickly i needed a bigger tank..n bought a 180 gallon right away..i learned alot from hillbilly..

 

[pwmin]

Honestly, a 75 gal. tank is small. Not even 75 gals. with stuff in the tank. If you were only doing one 50% water change a week, your fish were no doubt using up essential minerals from the water long before you did a water change. Filtration is irrelevant, as are nitrate levels when it comes to fish uptake of minerals. The water can be clean, and still lack the minerals needed for growth. This is the same reason you should not use straight RO water in your tank without remineralization. In the future, if you grow out any more fish in such a small tank, I would suggest a 50% water change at least twice a week, preferably every other day, in order to give the fish the best opportunity for maximum growth.

Thanks for the information. I honestly didn't even think of that and I'm a fuggin' fish culturist by occupation

only a gallon of gravel, nothing else, so 74 gallons :wink: (yeah, I know it's not even 75 full without anything at all, just messin' around ). I had them in the 300 for quite a while, too and they didn't grow in that, either, though. At least they're growing now. Do you think 50% once a week is enough in the 300? I think I have 10 total fish, maybe, most under 10".

 

[hillbilly]

There are many varaibles in a larger tank of course. Not very scientific in the least, but the fish themselves can sometimes "tell" you by their actions. If your fish " perk up ", and become more active after a large water change, this would indicate that you are not peforming adquate water changes. More is always better when it comes to changing water. Don't believe the old myths that changing too much water stresses fish. Some fish don't like the disturbance, but it's short lived, and really doesn't stress out the fish if the temps. and PH are close to the same. The benefits of fresh water outweigh a temporarly unhappy fish. I have homegrown discus that get excited by water changes, and actually seem to enjoy it, playing in the incoming water, and pulling the hairs on my arms with their mouth as I'm in the tank. I sometimes have to nudge them out of the way when working in the tank. They get used to it after awhile. The little monos I am growing out now, are also starting to get use to heavy water changes after only a month or so, as I do 50% on their 55 every other day. I consider this a good thing, as they will be more relaxed during water changes when in much larger tanks.

 

[ibr]

hey Paul, why dont you get rid off your central americans and consentrate your WC and food on your cichlas and your aro. 75 or 300 gal dosent mean alot, WC should be atleast two third every other day, check for nitrate now and then but be sure to supply with some mineral salt when you give them alot of clean hot WC. ps they will not growe faster on feeders unless you feed your feeders some high quality dryfood or some frozen mysis, krill, shrimps and offcourse give em 5-6 feeders each a day.
your pinima and piquiti should have been atleast 45 - 50 cm. after the first year.

 

[High City Rida]

Paul I do twice a week on the 240g and I can say it dosen't hurt and of course I usually end up with a 75% WC.

But at the size your Cichla are at 50% twice a week sounds like it would be worth the try to see if it helps. I also don't think that it hurts them to do big WC and often as you can.

 

[pwmin]

There are many varaibles in a larger tank of course. Not very scientific in the least, but the fish themselves can sometimes "tell" you by their actions. If your fish " perk up ", and become more active after a large water change, this would indicate that you are not peforming adquate water changes. More is always better when it comes to changing water. Don't believe the old myths that changing too much water stresses fish. Some fish don't like the disturbance, but it's short lived, and really doesn't stress out the fish if the temps. and PH are close to the same. The benefits of fresh water outweigh a temporarly unhappy fish. I have homegrown discus that get excited by water changes, and actually seem to enjoy it, playing in the incoming water, and pulling the hairs on my arms with their mouth as I'm in the tank. I sometimes have to nudge them out of the way when working in the tank. They get used to it after awhile. The little monos I am growing out now, are also starting to get use to heavy water changes after only a month or so, as I do 50% on their 55 every other day. I consider this a good thing, as they will be more relaxed during water changes when in much larger tanks.

thanks for the helpful post

hey Paul, why dont you get rid off your central americans and consentrate your WC and food on your cichlas and your aro. 75 or 300 gal dosent mean alot, WC should be atleast two third every other day, check for nitrate now and then but be sure to supply with some mineral salt when you give them alot of clean hot WC. ps they will not growe faster on feeders unless you feed your feeders some high quality dryfood or some frozen mysis, krill, shrimps and offcourse give em 5-6 feeders each a day.
your pinima and piquiti should have been atleast 45 - 50 cm. after the first year.

My water is at 6.5, so the water is more tailored for the SA's. I only have the CA's in there because I have nowhere else to put them. And I don't feed them feeders anymore as I said earlier except on rare occasions. They get mostly shrimp and I'm trying to get them on pellets also...some already eat them.

 

[ibr]

if you want to compare you can check out my not even 10 months old peru monos in another thread good luck and keep up the heftig WC thats the only way, upps nearly forgot they were nearly 40 cm. now in this month they are all over 40 cm.

 

[pwmin]

Paul I do twice a week on the 240g and I can say it dosen't hurt and of course I usually end up with a 75% WC.

But at the size your Cichla are at 50% twice a week sounds like it would be worth the try to see if it helps. I also don't think that it hurts them to do big WC and often as you can.

I'll give it a try on the weeks that I can.