Wertheimeria maculata Growth rate?

[DrownedFishonFire]

Just arrived today- 4 total. Whats your experience on growing those Wertheimeria maculata cats out?

40gB QT tank heater broke sometime this week as noticed the water was axoltol cold. This morning was one of the worst mornings due to slippery ice/rain/sleet between work shifts so not dealing with LFS heater run today.

So changed plans quick as not risking driving until I head back to work so they all went into the 112g 80 degree tank in breeder boxes to chill until this weekend.




What was the growth rates for everyone who had those? Im not letting them loose in the 112g i want to keep close eye on them and get them to gain some girth before Im comfortable leaving them alone. 2 largest ones seemed to be at 3” 2 smallest ones at 2” i did request for smallest ones from the store I purchased them from to grow them out

 

[kno4te]

Iamfish

 

[Yellowcat]

I have a pair, got them a year and 3 months ago @ 2 1/2". Ever since, the smaller one is now 6", the other is 7 1/2". There have been problems, however. They are extremely shy and nocturnal, never to be seen during the day, only feeding in total darkness, liking frozen bloodworms and pellets and would probably eat red worms and nightcrawlers. It takes about a year for them to lose the 'squiggly' pattern that will then turn into the spotted pattern. I got them after seeing pictures of the stunning looks of adult fish. The big problem with these fish is that they fight each other and will nip and shred fins, presumably to kill the other, assuming it's a territorial thing. I noticed the fish you received have fin damage, perhaps it's just from shipping stresses but possibly from conspecific aggression as mine displayed, so keep an eye on them as the fins heal or continue to get worse if you see more damage. You might want to be prepared to the need to separate them in different tanks.
Here is a photo of one a few months after I got them

This photo is recent of the smaller one, poor guy, showing permanent damage from the more aggressive larger one, before I separated them months ago, what's left of fins and tail are just scar tissue.

Because they are so shy I didn't notice the problem right away since they hide in the driftwood and wouldn't even come out to feed with the lights on in the room. I just now looked at the larger one in the other tank, hadn't seen it for many weeks, had to move around driftwood just to see it. When I separated them it had fin damage too but has since healed up fine with only some slightly noticeable tail scar tissue, sorry no way to get a photo, Just guessing but I think the smaller one may be a male and the larger one is thicker and more robust suggesting it's likely female. I have no idea if gender makes a difference as to aggression or no not. Anyway I hope your experience turns out better, good luck...

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Yellowcat

Much appericate the essential information you just supplied. This makes some sense why the edges were not perfect, I was eyeing them to see if they were nibbling at each other. They were sticking together. Not fighting etc like I usually see in asian bumblebees

Mind giving more info on your two growouts- what was the footprint/size of the tank were they in? Were they housed with other pleco/catfish sp?

 

[Yellowcat]

Originally both were in a 50G tank (32" x 14") gravel substrate and 2 large driftwood chunks, with a synodontis pardalis (they fight conspecifics too and had to be separated), currently the small beat up one stays next to the standpipe as shown in the photo, possibly because the synodontis doesn't want to share driftwood space, also in that tank is a 6" yo-yo loach. The large one is in a 60G tank, same gravel and driftwood thing with my 25 year old 11" pimelodus blochii, a 5" bushy nose pleco and a yo-yo and a couple of queen loaches, no problems in that tank that I know of..