How much does tanksize affect growth rate? Let's assume everything else is equal (waterquality, aeration, filtration turnover rate, maintenance, decor, EVERYTHING). Let's also assume it's a young fish that even in the small tank would have over ten times current length for tankwidth (ie The fish isn't shoehorned into the small tank). Also that the large and small tanks are empty of other fish. JUST TANK SIZE. Does it matter?
Tank size affects growth rate?
- Thread starter lujor
- Start date
lujor;4413383; said:
I don't think tank size will affect the growth of the fish at all, It's more diet than anything.
in 8th grade i did my science fair project on this, i started my fish off in a 30 for a month and then in a 55 for a month, they grew about a sixteenth of an inch more in the 55 in a month. It does affect the rate but not by much.
its the water volume and how it relates to water quality.
in a larger tank you can 'power feed' your fish more without compromising water quality and so your fish will grow larger.
its hard to do this with a small water volume. nitrates get too high, you can get ammo/nitrite spikes etc.
I have personally grown lemonfin barbs to 19" long in only a 90g tank (with massive water changes) so I know that if you can keep water quality good and still feed tons, the fish are going to get big.
the catch being, this is tough to do in small water volumes.
if anyone would like I can post older pics of the big barbs.
in a larger tank you can 'power feed' your fish more without compromising water quality and so your fish will grow larger.
its hard to do this with a small water volume. nitrates get too high, you can get ammo/nitrite spikes etc.
I have personally grown lemonfin barbs to 19" long in only a 90g tank (with massive water changes) so I know that if you can keep water quality good and still feed tons, the fish are going to get big.
the catch being, this is tough to do in small water volumes.
if anyone would like I can post older pics of the big barbs.
convict94;4413423; said:
Yea, but did you feed it the same amount each and every day? To truly test this they should have not been fed at all.
Then you can eliminate the factor for food.
As for food being a factor. I did my own test with PBASS sometime ago. I had two 60 gallon tanks plumped on the same filtration system. One Azul I fed live, the other Pellets. In a course of a few months, the one fed live doubled it's size than the one on pellets. I fed both the same time and on the same day.
I asked the same question
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4392148#post4392148
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4392148#post4392148
I get all the water quality stuff and how it relates to vol. I am wanting to find out if the extra volume alone would affect a change. If the two tanks have the exact same nitrates, ammonia, etc is there likely to be dif in growth?
R1_Ridah;4413454; said:
It's a cool test, but for it to be truly valid you would have to use the same calories of feeder and same calories of pellet, take into account what the feeders had been eating, etc. There are too many variables to draw a "for sure" conclusion. Or did you do all that? Either way, still a cool DIY experiment.
I think it does. I had my fish in a 6 ft 150 gallon. After a few months in my 8 ft 500 gallon, they seemed to have exploded in size.