Hi Netmax,

I do have several tanks, but as I gain experience I am more and more
hesitant about moving my fish between tanks. I have seen "sick" fish
recover in their community tanks.

As to other's comment about "stunted" Clowns, this sounds negative as
I associated stunted with sickness. All of my Clowns healthy and
active. If they are stunted, so much the better. After I got my
Clowns I read the posts warning about potential size. That was over 2
years ago. It has been over a year since I have noticed any new
growth. I will be quite happy if they remain at their current sizes.

dick

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:56:12 -0500, "NetMax"
wrote:

My Clowns are only 4" long and I've had them for 2 years in a 70g.
Either they are not eating well enough or my water is too hard, and I
should look around to find someone who will take them from me. Generally
they can be slow growing, especially at certain sizes, but I've found
their growth rates are very much affected by water quality and diet.

I think the issue with sizing the tank to the fish is two-fold. Many
people only have one tank, so they need to be warned about the eventual
size of the fish, to be sure they are prepared to adequately accommodate
them. Others like myself & Dick have many tanks, so we can simply rotate
them through increasingly larger tanks as required, or not, if not
needed.

The other issue is that tank size will affect their growth rate, or more
particularly, water quality (which is poorer in small tanks) may stunt
the fish. If moving the fish through tank upgrades, you need to be
slightly ahead of their requirements to not stunt their growth (imo).

A few more issues particular to botia a
- they are shoaling fish, so you need many of them.
- they are bottom dwellers, reducing their useable space to the square
footage of the bottom.
- they can be light sensitive and burrow for shelter and darkness,
further reducing their usable habitat.
Each of these points, should influence us to providing larger habitats.
jmo