My Ripsaw grows slooooooow

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toehead11183

toehead11183

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 4, 2006
3,538
21
68
Memphis, tn
I love catfish and I especially love doradids. I love their wicked armored look. I have a Ripsaw that, against everyones testimonials, has yet to grow since i got him. I feed frozen bloodworms and krill, hikari sinking carnivore pellets and brine shrimp pellets and i make sure he gets plenty to eat. I do 50% WCs weekly and I have 1200gph running through my sump on my 180g. My Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate always test 0, my pH stays at 7.2 and temp at 82*. I keep 11 Blood Parrots (2-11"), 17 Clown Loaches( 3-4"), a 3" Mouse doradid, a 4" pleco and a few other 1" fish.
I decorated with sand, driftwood and large rock. Am I doing something wrong here. I got this guy 3 months ago and he has yet to grow.
 
Strange he hasnt grown, though I would be dubious of a 0 nitrate reading, it comes out my tap at 30ish, in 15 years I havnt ever seen a 0 nitrate reading unless using RO or something, even then you get nitrate in a healthy tank.

Wouldnt worry to much though as long as he is healthy, he will probably do a massive growth spurt soon, my fire eel was like that didnt grow for ages now he seems to have doubled in length and girth in a matter of weeks.
 
By ripsaw do you mean Oxydoras niger or Pterodoras granulosus? Dorads are relatively slow growers, but if it's feeding well, you should have seen some growth I'd have thought. Did you get the ID confirmed when you bought it? Not saying it isn't one, but there are a few small dorads that look similar when young.
Be nice to see some pics anyway!
Martin
 
looking back at the picture of when i got him and now, i guess he has grown a little bit!!

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I was just kidding, that 2nd pic was from the Nashville Aquarium. that fish was a good 3.5-4'. You were right about the gaining weight part. He was really skinny when i got him and he's gotten fat so i guess all that food went to fat and not growth. Still, i would give him an inch of growth at the most for 3-4 months worth of food.
 
toehead11183;2991903; said:
I was just kidding, that 2nd pic was from the Nashville Aquarium. that fish was a good 3.5-4'. You were right about the gaining weight part. He was really skinny when i got him and he's gotten fat so i guess all that food went to fat and not growth. Still, i would give him an inch of growth at the most for 3-4 months worth of food.
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Damn I missed one of my emoticons when I was responding...


it should have read

A little??? Seriously!!! :eek: Thats a perfectly normal growth..:grinno: looks awful skinny when you got it so ALOT of the growth would have went towards just gaining back the weight that it was missing... All caught up now though :D :thumbsup:
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Hahaha. That gave me a good laugh. It's funny when you see them everyday they don't seem to grow much until you pull out the baby pictures. Then its like wow... :) That little guy had a lot of weight to put on before he's going to grow much. My little guys came in really skinny and then once they got there weight on all the way, started growing. Also, if you haven't ever done so, and you have concerns about growth and health, you might consider deworming. He might be taking in a lot of nutrients, but if worms are getting to it instead of him, you might be growing worms instead of fish. :)
 
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