Roekil sevs super slow growers?

[PhishMon84]

Certainly gives more credence to some of the max sizes of fish I’ve seen listed, makes it seem less like posturing and more like a syntax thing, on my end

 

[neutrino]

Certainly gives more credence to some of the max sizes of fish I’ve seen listed, makes it seem less like posturing and more like a syntax thing, on my end

I think you have a point there. While I don't resort to power feeding or prioritize fast growth or max size, my fish have always grown well, but I'd be setting records if some of the max sizes or growth rates I've posted for species I've raised or bred were actually SL.

 

[neutrino]

My SAs have always been hit and miss when it comes to growth rate, but I think that is common. I will have some that grow like a weed, others that grow pretty normal.
This is my first one that I have had almost a year that just doesn't seem to be putting on size, my concern was exactly what Ryan posted was that it may be a runt or stunted growth for some reason or another.

Yeah, I was thinking this might be the case. I just thought it was odd that Uaru from January 2018 came in the same size he was in June of 2017 and have already outgrown him in just a few months. Thanks for the info!
Thanks!

Some catch up eventually. What I've seen breeding various species, and this includes rotkeils, is in any particular spawn you can get a few of what I call super fish, bigger, fast growing, faster to color up, also a few that are small and slow growing, and most closer to average. Often, the small outliers are females that stay smallish but produce fry just fine, but not always. I've had them be males, some catch up later, occasionally they stay smallish.

Not saying you can't get runts or stunted fish, but more than once I've had cichlids of different species appear to be runts, or stop growing for a while, but catch up later on, sometimes with a change of tank, tankmates, or food, sometimes for no obvious reason.

You don't always know. In the early days of pigeon blood discus, like 1990-91, probably, I got a group of them, about 1.5". Already showing color, all but one that was smaller and colorless; if he had much less color he'd practically be transparent, and he stayed that way for months. Figured him for a runt with some sort of genetic or health issue, he just seemed weak and I didn't expect him to live long,

After about 8 months he was maybe 2.5 inches and that's when he started to grow... fast. At one year he was one of the bigger in the group and putting on color. By 18 months he was the biggest, most beautiful one in the group. Don't remember his full size, exactly, but he was a big, thick discus.

Not the only time I've had something like that happen. Not predicting what your rotkeil willl do, but sometimes a slow growing fish will catch up, sometimes because you adjust something for them, sometimes on their own.