Stunted Growth?

Hey guys,

I had my 1st spawn of commons about 2.5 months ago and they dont seem to be getting much bigger than about 2cm. (There are a few bigger ones but not very many).

They keep spawning but don't seem to be getting bigger!

They are in a standard 3 foot tank with there parents as I cannot afford the running costs/have the space for a grow out tank.

I understand they grow slower than usual when you leave them with there parents but this seems really really slow.

Am I being too inpatient or is there something wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Oh btw i feed them zuccinni and alge pellets.

Sorry for the double post.

Some grow faster than the others. Keep up with the water changes and fresh veg and they should be ready in no time

ok thanks

water changes are the key here. there is lots of evidence to suggest that fish will grow slower with lots of tank mates. discus, for example, are known to release a chemical into the water that when it hits a particular level they will slow their growing. this is one of the reasons people with young discus do lots of water changes (one of the reasons). i would suggest that you should be doing daily wayer changes of about 10 percent. that is what i do with fry in a breeding tank, in fact any tank with fry in it get 10% daily WC unless i'm particulary busy and then it will be a day off followed by 15% then back to 10% daily.

I would suggest that would speed up their growth. I would also look at how much you feed them. Not saying you are under feeding them but I always aim for some of the cucumber to be left when i remove it, that way i know no one is wanting for food.

wow doug very informative thank you very much.

I shall increase the frequency of my water changes as i am only doing 1 or 2 a week (25%). Hopefully this will work

your not doing anything wrong. what you are doing it perfectly fine to keep the fish happy and healthy what i'm suggesting will hopefully speed up their growth

I thing the fastest growing fry come from setups with large sumps, purely because of the much larger volume of water in the single system

ok thanks doug. Yeah my budget cant afford a tank with a sump atm haha. I shall just keep up with my water changes and keep an eye on them . Thank you again