<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9254666#post9254666 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Poorcollegereef
True, always push the hobby and the knowledge of the world farther, but lets us do it in a non-reckless manner. Peace!
I FOUND IT!!!
I found this very fascinating, from
The Skeptical Fishkeeper,
Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine (December 2006) :
Fish Growth vs. Tank Size. read on...
.....
Dr. Julius Tepper, a Long Island veterinarian who specializes in koi, says that in his clinical practice he's observed that koi housed in small ponds (which he defines as a stocking density of more than three adult koi per 1000 gallons of water) are often adnormally small, and they tend to have health problems as well. "I would agree that there is a definite correlation between corwding and fish stunting," he said. "Some factors to consider would be: a.) a naturally occurring growth hormonal influence, where it would be biologically beneficial to reduce growth rate in the face of potential food shortages [and] b.) stree hormones, released when fish are always in ech other's face, which would affect growth and probably health also.
TFH Editor-In-Chief David Boruchowitz agreed. "It is my contention, lacking strict empirical studies, that fish are stunted by poison," he said. "A large fish simple cannot remain in a small space for more than a few minutes/hours without poisoning itself with ammonia. Long-term nitrate poisoning is probably also a factor in many cases, as is pheromone non-dilution."
To back this up, he cites an ongoing "five gallon oscar experiment" that he has been conducting for the past couple of years.It has involved rearing a dozen oscars and one pim catfish in a 75-gallon tank, which, if you do the math, comes out to roughly 5.7 gallons of water per fish- far below the 50 gallons per
pair that is often recommended. However, to remove ammonia, nitrates, and pheromones, Boruchowitz changes 100 percent of the water in the tank every day, literally draining it down until the oscars are lying on their sides on the bottom. The fish have grown normally, he said and (apart from two that jumped to their deaths, and one that died from aggression) are at least as healthy as any other of the many oscars that Boruchowitz has raised over the years.
Discus breeder and
TFH columnist Jack Wattley conducted a similar experiment, the result of which he reported on in his June 2006 column, that seems to back of Boruchowitz's contention that water quality, and not tank size, is at the heart of the problem when potentially large fish are kept in small tanks. In the experiment, Wattley placed identical groups of discus fry into two separate containers; the smaller container, a glass drum, was barely a twelfth the size of the larger tank. Both containers were filled with water that had the same pH, temperature, and conductivity, and both fish were fed the same amount of the same food each day. However, the smaller tank recieved 90% water changes six to eight times every day, while the larger tank recieved only a 40% water change once a day. By the time the experiment ended a month later, the fry in the smaller tank were twice the size of their counterparts in the larger tank
.... discuss? (*no pun intended!)
