DaveB;3949074; said:I'd be shocked if anyone ever got one over 2 feet in captivity. Hell, Bongo is the only one I've seen that's truly well over a foot.
In my experience a fish will grow only as much as the tank allows. I was power-feeding some juvenile Uaru - between 4 and 8 times a day - in an overfiltered super clean growout tank, but they stalled once they got too big for it. I dropped them in the big tank and now they eat once every 2-3 days, but they've grown noticeably in 2 weeks.
My sole remaining distichodus has grown 3" tops in the 20 months I've had him. In his case, though, it's just because I don't overfeed (and partly because now that he lives with cichlids, he only gets vegetables. This sucks for his color, btw). I'm notorious for making all my fish grow as slowly as datnoids. My black Aro has grown an inch in a year. A lot of people on here make it a race to get these huge fish - and the distichodus I gave to Regalt was roughly the same age as the one I kept, and he's 9" or so - but I don't see the point. I've already delayed my monster tank acquisition twice. Life happens. I'd rather not rush to grow a fish I'll no longer be able to keep. I'll powerfeed growouts but that's it. The fish live just fine on one meal a day or less.
Anyway, the ones I have had in the past, including the one in my avatar, grew at a slow and steady rate. You can definitely keep them for a very long time in regular sized tanks unless you're really overdoing it with the feeding. Regalt has an enormous tank, so he can do the work to get his guys bigger. But if that's not your goal, I wouldn't worry about them outgrowing your current tank.
Yea I usually only feed once or twice a day and may skip a day in between. Def not looking to get them huge id be happy if these guys would stay around 11-12".
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