Salvini Cichlid growth rate question

[SalviniCichlidFan]

Hi all,

I currently have a tiny 1 inch Salvini cichlid. What is it's rate of growth and when will it get to 3 or 4 inches?

Thanks

 

[PhishMon84]

I’ve only grown out a trio- they had a 75 gallon to themselves, did weekly 20% changes on the tank and they grew slowlllly, like oscura heterospila slow. I think it took about 10 months from that size.
Granted this was years ago and I was much less patient then I am now so it may have felt like it was longer than it was.
Ended up with 1 male pretty fish, kinda cryptic in that it hid a lot

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

I’ve only grown out a trio- they had a 75 gallon to themselves, did weekly 20% changes on the tank and they grew slowlllly, like oscura heterospila slow. I think it took about 10 months from that size.
Granted this was years ago and I was much less patient then I am now so it may have felt like it was longer than it was.
Ended up with 1 male pretty fish, kinda cryptic in that it hid a lot

what are some fast growing cichlids then?

 

[PhishMon84]

Faster growing fish tend to have larger terminal sizes.
what’s the largest size tank you currently own?

 

[Deadeye]

Most of the medium sized centrals are painfully slow growers, at only an inch every 2-3 months.
Clean water and frequent feedings tends to speed this up. I can’t stress this enough. For a year after getting my .5 inch Dempsey, I got it to barely 3 inches by infrequent water changes and infrequent feedings. Then I got smart about it and dramatically increased both. He is still only about 5.5-6 inches, but getting tall and fat even faster. That growth rate increase started around January, and I started good care practices last September.
Most larger cichlids will grow fast until 4-8 inches but then dramatically slow down.
On one hand you have cichlids like gts and festaes, which have decent to huge adult sizes, but take forever to reach it.
Then there are oscars and pbass, which just don’t stop growing and can put on a few inches in a month at their best.
If you love salvini cichlids (based on your username I assume you do), I’d say go for it because it will be worth it when you have grown out a monster after such a slow time.

 

[duanes]

I find the amount of water changes done, seriously influences the rate of growth.
If you do one 25% water change per week, your fish will grow much slower than if you do two 40% water changes per week, or slower than if you do more 50% water changes per week, etc etc. I try to do 30-40% water changes every other day.
Many breeders that want their cichlids (such as discus) to get to a size that is marketable quickly, will do "daily" 80% to 90% water changes .
And this especially comes into play when there are multiple fish in a tank.
All fish produce hormones, some are growth inhibiting to other fish in the tank, and the only way to get rid of those hormones is thru water changes.

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

Faster growing fish tend to have larger terminal sizes.
what’s the largest size tank you currently own?

My salvini is in a 10 gallon grow-out tank right now. Once he reaches 2-3 inches I will put him in my dads 29 gallon semi-aggressive community tank. Once he reached 4 inches I will put him in my 75.

 

[PhishMon84]

With a 75 being the largest tank available I’d look at a single carpintis (grows quickly, reaches reasonable size and personable) or similar- maybe some tetras like Colombian red/blue but I wouldn’t add other cichlids.
You could instead do a group of fire mouth types- also slow growing but great interactions