What would happen?

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DemonShark

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 16, 2008
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Niagara, Ontario, Canada
I've always kept my fish in tanks that were more than big enough for a fish when it reaches adult size....but I'm curious.

What exactly happens if you would keep a larger fish in a tank that was much too small for it, even if the water quality was perfect? Of course it would be stunted in some way, but what exactly happens?

Lets say....a firemouth in a 10g. What would happen over time if it had perfect food and perfect water conditions?
 
probably nothing. besides a stunted fish and unhappy because theres no room. thats sayiing good feed and water quality like you saiid. one very unhappy fish.
 
ah, the age old argument...

I really don't think putting a fish in a smaller tank has anything to do with the fish being smaller, EXCEPT that the water quality would get far worse far faster. Which would affect the growth rate.

The real question is why would you want to keep a fish in a tank that's too small?
 
I had 14 Convicts in a 10g and the males got six inches and made hundreds of babies. Go figure.



***EDITED TO ADD***
This is definately not something I recommend. Always try to do right by your animals. With that said, water was always perfect in that 10g, even with all those big cons and their babies.
 
Have you ever seen what they did at the Epcot fish farm at Disney? They have hundreds of fish in a small cylinder placed horizontally, with one tube in and one tube out (constant water flow).

I'd guess that the fish would grow big if you keep the water pristine. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
 
DemonShark;2761733; said:
Could they die from it then?
If they are just unhappy, whats the worse that could happen. Ich would be possible wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

Anything could happen. You could get an ammonia or nitrite spike. Nitrates and hormones could build up. With this, illness and/or death can be the result. With a much smaller amount of water comes much less room for error. It's not something you should do. Get the proper tank or buy proper fishes for the tank you have.
 
Nothing will happen if you keep they water clean. A firemouth would probably grow to it's normal size as long as you did daily large water changes. The problem is that big fish in small tanks pollute the tank and cause a large varity of illnesses. If the fish is very large just during the a 24hr period the water conditions would greatly decrease. Imagine a 10 inch oscar in a 20g tank. The water will steady get polluted at a very fast rate. Even if you do a lot of water changes the fish is going to be subjected to large changes in water chemistry at every water change. You go from high nitrates and ammonia to nothing, then high, then low every time you do a water change. It's very stressful on the fish and will lead to many problem.

In a large tank the 10 inch oscar produces waist but you have a lot more bacteria to break it down and a lot more water to dillute the nitrates. I have several large fish in my 220g and my nitrates are around 6 at every weakly water change and go down to 3 after it. If they were in a 55g my nitrates would be more like 60-80 after one week. So if your nitrates are high you do a larger water change so I would probably do 70% or so at a time. That would get them down around 20. That's a huge jump compaired to 6 down to 3.

I seem to rambling so I hope this makes some sense.
 
What about exercise? Without room to swim the fish would be unhealthy from staying in one place all day and night. I read somewhere that it would stunt a fish which was explained like this: The fish stops growing on the outside but it's organs continue to grow on the inside making a deformed fish that dies an unnatural miserable early death. I could be wrong but that's what I read somewhere in my early fishkeeping days. Has anyone else heard of that or am I misinformed?
 
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