Grow Gt..Grow!!!

[b.]

All i want is my green terrors to grow. I feed them a good variety of food
and i do 25% water changes on a 125g every week. For some reason my fish
just seem to be at a stand still. Is there any thing that can be done to
excel the growth rate of these fish. Thanks.

[Jim Brown]

b. > wrote in message news:j40Va.12066$ff.2045@fed1read01...
> All i want is my green terrors to grow. I feed them a good variety of
food
> and i do 25% water changes on a 125g every week. For some reason my fish
> just seem to be at a stand still. Is there any thing that can be done to
> excel the growth rate of these fish. Thanks.
>
>

Need some more info.
Did you spawn them or were they purchased?
Best guess as to how old they are and their present size?
How many are in your 125G and what other tankmates?
What does your water test before and after water changes?
Any and all other info may lead to an informed reply.

Jim

[B.]

These GTs are store bought. My guess is that they are about 8 months old.
They are only 2.5 inches at best. I have 3 gts, 2 firemouths, 1 jack
dempsey, 5 geo brasilis, 3 convicts, and 5 texas. All these fish are under
2 inches except for the firmouths (4 - 6inch) and the jack (5 inches). The
nitrates are around 7.9 before change and at 8.3 after. In this tank there
aare alot of big boulders for hiding place and the only fighting that goes
on is when the convicts or the firmouths spawn. But the fighting is usually
to a miniinum that the tank is 6 fett.

[NetMax]

"B." > wrote in message
news:DOvWa.19036$ff.8119@fed1read01...
> These GTs are store bought. My guess is that they are about 8 months
old.
> They are only 2.5 inches at best. I have 3 gts, 2 firemouths, 1 jack
> dempsey, 5 geo brasilis, 3 convicts, and 5 texas. All these fish are
under
> 2 inches except for the firmouths (4 - 6inch) and the jack (5 inches).
The
> nitrates are around 7.9 before change and at 8.3 after. In this tank
there
> aare alot of big boulders for hiding place and the only fighting that
goes
> on is when the convicts or the firmouths spawn. But the fighting is
usually
> to a miniinum that the tank is 6 fett.

While we are waiting for Jim to return (he might be having one of his
'senior' moments ;~), I'll try to fill some of the blanks using Jim's
usual excellent line of questioning.

IMO 'Store bought' dictates that it's fairly impossible to determine the
exact age, and you will have no idea of the genetics (large parents?).
If underfed when young, (quality, quantity or both) or kept in poor water
conditions, then the final size might be affected. You can imagine that
if a bag of fish in transit were exposed to high ammonia, the survivors
might become runts, relying on their reduced respiration capability (if
it's true that gill damage by ammonia is irreparable, or at least, very
slow). Breeders might also use very high temperature grow-out tanks and
feed hourly. This creates a sudden burst of growth, but is not
representative of what happens in the home aquarium, and makes age
guesswork just that.

In your case, I'm not sure how the other inhabitants would (or could)
affect the GT growth rate. If it's a survival advantage to stay small,
they might grow slower, however having larger tank-mates (and lots of
space as you have) usually promotes a rapid growth rate. What growth
have you seen for what elapsed time?

I'm not sure how you can measure 7.9 and 8.3 nitrates (NO3). Typical
reagent test kits have no NO3 accuracy to the decimal place, and coarsely
measure >5ppm, then 10, 20, 50 ppm etc. Judging from your inhabitants
(53" fish load of hungry cichlids being generously fed), your NO3 would
not be less than 20-40ppm. I hope your AM3/4 and NO2 levels are zero, as
any value would indicate a filtration problem.

Do you see the GTs eating, and do they eat well? What is your
temperature ? (warmer = higher metabolism = feed more = grow more). What
% of their meals is frozen foods, live foods and high protein pellets?
Have you tried earthworms yet? ;~)

NetMax