What's going on with my Dovii's body shape?

[cchhcc]

I think your fish looks perfect. So many of our captive fishes are just fat blobs!

Yours may be a riverine race, but in my experience my dovii have never filled out until they get quite a bit large than yours. Take a look at this big guy (Nicaraguan race) who is STILL quite elongated:

You can see by the tape he's a big guy. I understand he's bigger now (he lives with a friend).

As long as your fish is growing in overall length you are feeding him just fine. "Powerfeeding" is not a healthy thing to do most of the time. Just aim for good solid growth rate, and your fish will turn into whatever his genes intend him to be.

 

[armac]

my nicaraguan is bigger bodied, not lile Balton's

I sold a smaller male yesterday he measured 10 inches, my big male is about 14 inches long, with a huge body

 

[balton777]

Dang cchhcc what a fantastic speicmen that one is! You're right, he's like mine...but bigger. I actually like mine (and yours) better than the fat football shaped tall bodied ones. I just didn't know there were that many like him because doing a Yahoo image search turns up all of the other shaped ones. Thanks for posting that Bad A** picture and the solid advice. I'm stoked mine might look like that.

 

[cchhcc]

Dang cchhcc what a fantastic speicmen that one is! You're right, he's like mine...but bigger. I actually like mine (and yours) better than the fat football shaped tall bodied ones. I just didn't know there were that many like him because doing a Yahoo image search turns up all of the other shaped ones. Thanks for posting that Bad A** picture and the solid advice. I'm stoked mine might look like that.

Good thing to look forward to!

 

[Modest_Man]

cchhcc beat me too it! He looks great, and much better than most of the obese fish we keep.

 

[balton777]

Good thing to look forward to!

cchhcc beat me too it! He looks great, and much better than most of the obese fish we keep.

Thank you gentlemen, high praise indeed coming from you two.

 

[VMike]

I think he looks fine.My Nicaraguan also has a higher,thicker body and I feed once a day.Mike

 

[balton777]

I think he looks fine.My Nicaraguan also has a higher,thicker body and I feed once a day.Mike

Your Dovii has the classic football shape.

 

[D-Train]

I'm only feeding him once a day. Maybe I should step it up to twice a day? He takes about 12-14 Massivore pellets. I feed all the other fish twice a day but the other feeding is NLS pellets which he won't touch.

HOLY! Not only is that a lot but I wish i could feed that much to my fish.... A bag of Massivore here is 45 dolla!

 

[balton777]

HOLY! Not only is that a lot but I wish i could feed that much to my fish.... A bag of Massivore here is 45 dolla!

Buy it online. 2 times ago I found the 2.2lb bags for $38.99 and had 2 bags shipped. Then last time, it was on sale at www.bigalsonline.com for $18.99 for the 13.4 oz bags so I bought 15 bags....and they had free shipping as a special deal. That saved me even more. I don't buy anything at the lfs. That's for rich people lol.