Stunted growth on Marine Fish...

[Marc]

What causes a fish to stop growing or to not grow at all. I have had a sohal tang and a yellow tang for the past 3 years and neither of them have grown to their adult sizes. My sohal is still 4.5 inches and my yellow tang is still 3.5 inches. My imperator anyhow is slowly growing larger and I have only had him over a year and he has grown from 4.5 inches to 6 inches! Whats the deal with my sohal tang? They are in a 125 gallon tank with liverock for supplemental filtration as well as a fluidized bed filter and A 25 watt UV, and carbon filters. My skimmer is over 5 feet tall venturi lifereef model. My nitrates are no higher than 20 ppm. Has this happened to other aquarists?

Thanks,
Marc

 

[Waxxiemann]

Your tank is to small bro. That Sohal can grow to 18"! He is probably stunted.

 

[anydarnthing]

What are you feeding them? I have a Sohal I bought at 4" and within 6 months he doubled in size, he was in a 120gal for a year then I moved him to a 240gal but he did nearly all his growing in the 120. He is now about 10", I don't know why your Sohal would be stunted except diet, my Sohal would eat mysis, flake, pellet, and nori. My Yellow tang just seems to be a slow grower no matter what.

 

[Waxxiemann]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8168653#post8168653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Waxxiemann
Your tank is to small bro. That Sohal can grow to 18"! He is probably stunted.

PS- I keep a 4" Sohal in my 90.

 

[Marc]

That does not make any sense since my tank is 125 gallons. That is not small enough to stunt a fishes growth that drastically. There has to be another reason. I feed him Ocean nutrition formual one and two and nori. My angel is growing but the sohal is not. Can this be reversed???

Marc

 

[anydarnthing]

Try frozen mysis, mine is huge and doing great on the food listed in my prior post. I fed him mysis twice a day and nori 3 times a week, pellet and flake were his snacks between meals. Also hopefully your thinking about a bigger tank, I don't think I would tempt fate by keeping him in that tank long term its not a matter of if he will go postal but when.

 

[lux_06]

if a fish is not growing i would think its not happy.

we're in the smoked salmon industry so for maximum growth of atlantic salmon the following must be looked at.

diet - oil content of the food has a lot to do with the growth rate, and fish quality. tangs also love veggies so make sure the fish is getting enough nori.

swimming - area to swim in and excersize is vital in fish making the most of its diet and a fish that cant swim wont turn the food into flesh.

stocking density - causes stress on the fish if he doesnt have the room he wants.

no stress - stress will inhibit growth fullstop.

good water condition - poor water will mean the fish is using energy to cope in the not ideal conditions rather then thriving.

temperature - if we have a hot summer or cold winter it will drasticly effect the growth of our fish so im only sure this is the same in a hobbyiest tank.

in general though id simply say if a fish isnt growing its not the fish its the system, something somewhere isnt 100% right so all you can do is to check eveything.

and then i dont know much about the pellets that you use, but if its not making the fish grow and you think everything else is fine, then if i were u i would not be happy with that food and use something else.

hth - adam

 

[wayne in norway]

I would guess that in the wild fish like this feed constantly, in a nutrient starved aquarium this is impossible.

 

[thor32766]

diet has alot to do with it, what are you feeding him?

 

[Marc]

I feed him Nori sheets as well as Ocean Nutrition formulas like formula one and two and even high protein. My imperater angel is huge but the others are just stunted. Can there growth be restarted again??? My filtration is state of the art like they use iin public aquariums where I used to work so I know my water chemistry is in check. My nitrates are low in the 15 to 20ppm range. I do get a lot of diatom algae though but I think that came from my kent sea salt which I stopped using and switched to tropic marin.

Marc

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8170226#post8170226 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Marc
My imperater angel is huge .... Marc

This could be part of the problem. Sounds like you already have an alpha fish.

 

[FishNutzBoi]

I wouldn't be complaining if I have a Sohal that won't outgrow my tank... God bless you that yours doesn't grow much

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8169127#post8169127 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lux_06
if a fish is not growing i would think its not happy.

we're in the smoked salmon industry so for maximum growth of atlantic salmon the following must be looked at.

diet - oil content of the food has a lot to do with the growth rate, and fish quality. tangs also love veggies so make sure the fish is getting enough nori.

swimming - area to swim in and excersize is vital in fish making the most of its diet and a fish that cant swim wont turn the food into flesh.

stocking density - causes stress on the fish if he doesnt have the room he wants.

no stress - stress will inhibit growth fullstop.

good water condition - poor water will mean the fish is using energy to cope in the not ideal conditions rather then thriving.

temperature - if we have a hot summer or cold winter it will drasticly effect the growth of our fish so im only sure this is the same in a hobbyiest tank.

in general though id simply say if a fish isnt growing its not the fish its the system, something somewhere isnt 100% right so all you can do is to check eveything.

and then i dont know much about the pellets that you use, but if its not making the fish grow and you think everything else is fine, then if i were u i would not be happy with that food and use something else.

hth - adam

Good post that sums it up very well!

 

[Amphiprion]

I agree ^^