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Since
I first started with an aquarium, keeping the domestically
developed swordtails, guppies, mollies and platies, it always
seemed that the guy with the biggest fish had the best
fish, and was then was the best fish keeper. When you get more
serious about keeping and showing your fish, size does
matter. I have sat up far too many nights pondering this issue,
as have most other fishkeepers that want great looking
fish. What do I need to do to develop huge, honkin’ fish?
I am going to tell you that my fishroom does not
consist of rows of tanks filled with extremely large, “beefy”
fish. There
are some that are, but there being few is by choice. I
have kept many Cichlids, barbs, danios etc. and explored raising
them big as well as breeding them, but my general point
of reference in this article are the domestic livebearers-
swords
and guppies, because my work with them has dictated the
size tanks I use, etc. However, to raise any species up to its
maximum size and health requires adherence to all of
the same factors. There are a number of variables involved in
this
process, and many of them are standard good husbandry.
There are also a number of “tricks” that some people swear by
that may be valid, but are inconsistent and may not
work for you. These practices are specific to developing size,
and
hopefully I will address most of them, some that you
will not find in many of the pet fish books available to the
casual
hobbyist.
The overall heft of a fish also influences how large a
fish is perceived. I had a friend determined to see how large he
could get the swordtail, Xiphophorus montezumae,
considered one of the largest swordtails currently known. He
put 3 fish each in 2 bare 30 gallon tanks and stuffed
them daily with Daphnia, dry food and brine shrimp. Normally,
a big full sized montezumae will get to be about 5.5
inches. I have never seen one hit a full 6 inches, but rumors
have
gone around that they can reach up to 10 inches.
After a few months he had solid, big fish. He called me
with a report, “Someone was looking at these fish today and
estimates they are about 9 inches!” “Have you taken a
picture?” I asked. “Oh no,” he tells me, I don’t have a camera,”
“Then when they die, send them to me.” I told him.
“Wrap them up in alcohol and mail them to me, I’ll preserve them
and measure them for you.” And he did. They were big,
husky fish. And they measured almost exactly 5.5 inches, entire
length including sword, but they were very deep bodied
from having been well fed all of their lives. Things like this
make me wonder about stories of red swords in the 60’s
that reached 6 inches, and that maybe those striving to grow
fish back to what they are remembering from their youth
are chasing an ideal that can’t be met, because they were never
really that way. I have seen mollies however, that may
have reached 6 inches, grown by a fish farmer in Texas, but
again,
I didn’t have a tape measure, and their most striking
attribute was a thick, heavy body which may have made them look
larger than they really were. But they were certainly
very big fish. So size can also be what people think they see,
even
if it isn’t entirely true.
Essentially, there are 7 factors. Water quality,
Aeration, Tank Size, Foods, Temperature, Stocking levels, and
Genetics.
You will notice I list genetics last. Yes, it is a
factor, but it amazes me how many see a big fish and have “gotta
have it”
(or a few of its young.) And then end up with fish the
same size as what they had all along. Or people that create
“horses” out of fish they bought at their local fish
store. Genetics, though a fundamental essential component, is
far
from the entire picture.
I will address each of these variables as they apply to
raising not only healthy, prolific and colorful fish, but fish
that
will get close to being as large as they can be.
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The 7 Factors
Water quality: Each of these 7 variables is important,
and I will make an effort to avoid saying that each is the
“most important.” But good water quality is essential,
and there are many ways to accomplish this. To begin with,
so that there are no opportunities for decaying organic
matter to accumulate, I keep all bare bottom tanks, with
floating or potted plants. Ammonia stresses the fish,
and when you are going to be feeding a fish heavily to get it as
large as possible, keeping a bare bottomed tank ensures
that your water quality will stay as consistent as you keep
it through variables you can control- water changes,
changing the filters etc..
The most essential is water changes. I have
experimented with different amounts at different time intervals,
and
have found that 50% twice a week is good, and about 10%
a day is best. I know hobbyists that do 50% every day. I
used to think that you could harm the fish if you
changed too much, that more than 50% would deplete the bacteria
etc. to a point to do harm to the fish, but that is not
the case, particularly if you water that has been allowed to sit
for
a few days. If the changes are done regularly, and the
water introduced is close in temperature and dechlorinated,
there will not be a problem. The problem comes when you
slow down or stop the changes, and the effect that this
will have on the fish, which may not respond well until
they adapt. If you change huge amounts infrequently (approx.
more than 50% once a week) there is an adjustment from
“old” to “new” water that the fish are required to go through,
and you may introduce stress issues that you did not
have previously. It is best to change water consistently both in
amount and time between changes. With a tank where I
was setting out to grow the biggest fish I could, I would change
at least 50% twice a week, 10-15% a day is better.
The thinking with raising big fish is that you want all
of their energy to go into growth, not fighting other stressors
or
expending their energy in other ways.
One secret to big fish is starting off the fry as well
as possible, setting an initially strong, consistent rate of
growth.
With new babies in say, a 2 gallon tank I change 50% of
the water daily for the first 2 weeks to a month, or hang the
babies in a net breeder in a much larger tank with just
a couple of fish swimming below. They then eat the baby brine
shrimp and dry food that falls through the netting. The
frequent feedings and brine shrimp will foul the water quickly
in a small 2 gallon type baby tank, and until they are
big enough to fend for themselves extra effort needs to be put
in to keep the water of high quality during those all-
important first few weeks- the net breeder hanging in a much
larger body of water solves that problem.
Keeping them in the breeder for the first 10 days to 2
weeks means that you can keep an eye on them, and they will
be less likely to miss food when it is introduced into
the tank. When time comes to release them, remove any other
fish, and they will already be acclimated to the water
conditions in that tank. Be aware that keeping them too long in
the breeder will also stunt their growth- as soon as
they can fend for themselves confidently- no less than 2 weeks,
assuming there are no other larger fish in the tank,
they should be released.
I understand this sounds like effort, even work. Water
changes are extremely important, so find ways to make it easy
for yourself. No one should be expected to be sucking
on hoses and schlepping heavy buckets around on their weekends.
(But most of us do). I currently run about 60 tanks and
have made a PVC network that goes into every tank and the entire
room receives a daily 10% water change, automatically,
in 6 zones, in about a half hour, both filling and draining. The
plans
for this PVC setup can be purchased by emailing me, and
this setup requires no drilling of tanks, pumps or sumps.
The second water quality issue for growing large fish
is to keep the fish within the water quality parameters they are
best
suited for. I used to live in a city where the water
coming from the tap was a pH of 8.2. It would not have been
possible for
me to get the best growth from South American Cichlids
in those conditions, for they require water that is ideally far
more
acidic. But the African Cichlids did great in that
water. Read up on the fish you want to keep, and keep species
that will do
best in your water. Paying to add chemicals to alter
either the pH or hardness with each water change can be very
expensive,
and inconsistent from the fish’s point of view. Trying
to grow out a fish that is a close match to your water is the
best path
to success.
Aeration: This is an important variable in that it can
have a profound effect on the immediate health of the fish. It
is
important to research the type of water conditions that
the fish are accustomed to in the wild- some species are native
to faster moving streams and would require more
aeration, and possibly cooler water, as a matter of course, some
do not.
With respect to growing larger fish, I have seen large
fish produced from many types of aeration. I use box filters
with
small stones and polyester floss in my tanks, and feel
that the moderately rough aeration they provide works well for
the
fish that I try to grow their largest- primarily the
swords. I have seen fish that were kept just to produce size
that were
raised without aeration (and kept to just a couple per
large tank) that ended up huge and “beefy.” The thinking was
that
their energy went into growth and not the swimming
activity that turbulence in the water would require. As a
result, my
fish tend to be sleeker from the activity that they
encounter, and not as heavy bodied. Some might say they then
aren’t
as large, and they might be right. You can actually
produce “fat” fish, and you can get them pretty large, but the
males are
occasionally sterile from “fat testes” syndrome (I am
not making this up!). Essentially, I am of the opinion that a
big fish
should also be a healthy fish.
I have also heard from some breeders that they will
introduce a fair amount of aeration to new young so that they
are
forced to swim vigorously to survive, and then feed
heavily with the premise that this would encourage the biggest
and
strongest fish. It is an interesting idea, but I would
prefer to evaluate each fish when they are older, and make the
effort
to bring all of the young into at least adolescence
(except those with obvious defects) as carefully and as gently
as possibly,
with their energies during that period in their lives
focused on growth.
The goal is to create a world for the fish where their
life energy is not being expended for anything other than
getting larger.
A tank where the oxygen saturation or pH has been
affected because it is dirty means the fish must navigate those
obstacles
just to survive. It won’t be putting its precious
resources into growth. A consistent airstone or box filter will
help to keep the
bacterial levels up to keep your ammonia levels down,
and combined with vacuuming up any excess food will create an
environment the fish need to grow
Tank Size: The size of the tank, though important,
matters less than you would assume, provided the water quality
stays high.
It is much easier, however, to maintain higher water
quality with a larger tank, particularly when there are only a
few fish in
the tank. You will be putting larger amounts of food
into the tank than you normally would to encourage a lot of
growth, and
you do not want the water quality to deteriorate. So if
you are setting out to specifically raise large fish, your best
odds at
success will involve a larger tank than you would
normally provide for the size and number of fish you will be
working with.
As in the story above, my friend chose 2- 30 gallon
tanks for 5 fish, the greatest number of fish he felt he could
provide with
the smallest tanks that would meet his needs.
When choosing a tank the factors to take into
consideration were those my friend considered. With a fish he
thought would
get to be 6 inches+ he chose a tank where the water
quality would stay high with heavy feedings, but not so big that
the fish
would ever miss finding food that was put into the
tank. Next he had it filtered so it stayed clean, but left
outlet and air stre
am turbulence at a level where the fish weren’t pushed
around having to fight the current. He deliberately set out to
produce
fat fish. Then he made sure that they were all the same
sex, so that the males wouldn’t spend their energy chasing
females
as they matured. He provided modest light so they were
comfortable and as unstressed as possible, then fed them 4-5
times
a day with as many types of live and dry food as he
could come up with. If I were to decide I wanted to raise a big
Oscar, I
could easily see myself keeping a single individual in
a 100 gallon tank. If it were guppies I’d keep a half dozen in
tank of
10 or 15 gallons.
Which brings me to myths about tank size. A fish does
not stop growing as it ages, its growth is only limited by its
genetic
makeup, diet and the oxygen level in its environment. A
fish known to grow large but put in a small tank and fed less
will not
mature into a smaller size fish because the tank limits
its growth. That fish may stay small because it simply isn’t
healthy and
its growth is limited by its poor diet and lower oxygen
levels. It won’t live as long, and will not outgrow its
environment only
because it will die first. For example, a baby Oscar
will do just fine in a 10 gallon tank. Within its first few
weeks it will outgrow
that tank heading toward the 12 inches or so they
normally grow in captivity. It will die within 6 months if not
moved to a
larger tank, maybe a third the size it would normally
be by that age (when they normally live to 10 years). If moved
to a 30
gallon, that Oscar may live a full lifespan, but will
be cramped, and due to water fouling won’t be able to be fed the
amounts
it would normally ingest in a proper sized envoronment.
As it reaches maturity it may reach a crowded, lonely 6 inches
in that
30 gallon and die of what appears to the fishkeeper to
be old age, at 3 to 4 years old. A single Oscar in a 50 gallon
approaches
what they require and will live out a full life.
However, a second Oscar in that tank reaches the fish’s minimum
tank size
requirement, and if you were to try for a 3rd, you’d
need to go once again to a larger tank. Smaller fish may reach
their full
size in a large aquarium, and won’t get any larger than
it normally would when raised as a healthy, well fed fish. In
fact,
smaller fish in bigger tanks can lead to fish not
finding the food, or stress the fish if there are not hiding
places and sheltered
areas provided. Raising guppies, for example in a 50
gallon tank when there are only a few fish does not lead to a
few large
individuals.
Also keep in mind that most aquarium fish are rarely
grown to their potential when it comes to size. Most fish you
see being
kept in people’s aquariums are undersized for no other
reason than that much of the commercially available fish food is
inconsistent, bland or is often used past its
nutritious prime, when live food is essential to maximum growth.
Most fish have
the potential to grow much larger than they do in home
aquariums or pet shops.
Foods: Can you raise truly
big fish without live food? Well, sorry, but no. There are a
number of alternatives, but a variety of
live food, and lots of it, are best. Before I go into those
alternatives, I will share my experience with live foods.
As a given, you will need to hatch baby brine shrimp
(BBS). There are a number of alternatives marketed recently that
claim to
be nearly as good, and these are generally fairly good
products . However, the serious breeders that I have dealt with
all use
BBS, particularly to feed young fish. Some breeders
will actually feed up to 10 times per day, small feedings, as
that will contribute
to growth better than one or two big feedings a day. I
feed young 3-4 times a day, twice brine shrimp, once or twice a
fine mix of
dry food. Adult fish are fed twice a day, once live
food if available, and once dry food.
I have tried a wide variety of live food with varying
amounts of success, but for me the easiest to raise (other than
brine
shrimp), with the least chance of spreading disease to
the fish, least smelly etc., are redworms. (small earthworms). I
keep
them in moist, pure Canadian peat, feed them egg laying
mix chicken feed crumble, and they reproduce quickly. The
drawback
is that they need to be chopped up to be fed to the
fish. Occasionally I am haunted by thoughts of one day meeting
all of the
thousands of earthworms I have cut up in my life, but
the fish love them and they are one of the best balanced foods
available.
The size of your broods will increase and they
definitely contribute to large fish, regardless of species.
There are many other types of live foods; white worms,
fruit flies, microworms, vinegar eels etc., and I have kept them
all
with various amounts of success. Many stores also sell
blackworms which are excellent, and tubifex, which I generally
avoid
due to the number of diseases and various flukes the
cultures are often contaminated with. Frozen brine shrimp is
also commonly
available, and there continues to be much discussion
over the nutritional value of adult shrimp. My advice is to try
it and see if it
does what you need for it to do. You may also choose to
go to the internet to read some of the literature available
before using it.
When raising fish to be as large as possible, generous
feedings of a quality, fresh dry food, frozen brine shrimp, and
chopped
earthworms with feedings of at least twice a day will
certainly give you the results you are looking for.
With respect to dry food I keep all of my foods in the
freezer, and feed a high quality staple flake bought online
mixed with a
vegetable flake. There are foods sold in the pet store
that are fine, but I choose to order by mail because I use it in
fairly large
quantities and I know it will be fresh. When fish are
fed the same brand of food for a long period I will often add an
attractant,
something they really like that when mixed in will
cause them to eat more than they normally would. Brine Shrimp
Direct’s
“Golden Pearls” (rotifiers or other small animals
prepared into a fine powder fed primarily to younger fish) works
well for this.
Now I have seen an exception to most of what I’d just
written regarding live food and size. I had a retired friend in
his 80’s
with a 20 gallon tank I kept stocked for him with
swordtails and a couple corydora catfish. The tank was set up
directly next to
a chair where he sat much of the day watching TV. I
know that his younger wife did at least a 50% water change once
a week,
and occasionally siphoned off excess food from the
bottom. Each time he sat down, or whenever he thought of it
(which
became far more frequent as his short term memory
diminished) he fed the fish from a container of dry food placed
next to
the tank (and the TV remote). These fish were easily
being fed 10-20 times per day, but they received no live food.
And they
got large. But they were also fat, out of shape,
crowded and rarely dropped fry.
Temperature: Fish raised at higher temperatures grow
quicker, have shorter lifespans, reach sexual maturity sooner,
and
may not get as large. Fish kept in cooler temps are
affected in all of the opposite ways. However, at cooler temps
some fish
could be more prone to disease.
I have found that settling on the proper temperature
for any particular species depends on the temperature that is
known to
be optimum for them, keeping an eye out for where they
appear to be at optimum health. You may also find that fish into
their
2nd, 3rd or 4th generation for you will be more
adaptable to your setting a temperature at the natural level for
the species, which
may be different than the temperature the fish were
raised in previously, particularly if they were obtained from a
local fish
store. An example are the colored swords available at
most pet shops. They are generally kept between 75 and 80
degrees,
yet the temperature the species they were developed
from are accustomed to is closer to 72. But if you were to take
a newly
purchased adolescent fish from the fish store, and
immediately put them in 72 degree water you may encounter ich or
fungal
infections. Most home aquarists keep their tanks at
75-80 degrees, and when all species are adapted to that
temperature,
then many varieties can be kept together without
temperature concerns, so most pet shops keep their tanks at
75-80 degrees.
I generally keep my tanks containing domestic X.
helleri swords at about 70-74 degrees. When I am raising them to
become
their largest, it is best that I slowly adapt any fish
accustomed to the higher temperature down to the lower
temperature and
grow them out there, for that is where they should be
the most healthy.
An exception to this are new young. I generally keep
them at warmer temps (78-80), for the first 2 to 3 weeks to get
past their
fragile first few days as quickly as possible with as
aggressive a growth pace as I can, then I bring the temp down as
they mature.
Stocking levels: How many
fish you try to keep in a particular amount of water will have a
direct effect on the size of the
fish you will end up with, addressed earlier in the Tank
Size section. The fewer fish in the tank, the more resources
that are
available to each individual fish. The water stays
cleaner, food is more plentiful without clouding the water, and
each fish
expresses less energy interacting with others for
dominance, competition for food, etc. My biggest fish have come
from tanks
of 10 gallons or more that contained no more than a
couple fish. I have seen some larger livebearers raised for size
that were
kept at 10 gallons per fish. Generally, the “one incher
per gallon” rule seems to apply fairly well for fish smaller
than 3 inches.
It is best to have them kept same sex, or one male to
two or 3 females to keep the amount of sparring between males to
a
minimum, but same sex is better. I have observed often
that when two tanks are kept next to one another, using Guppies
as
an example, with a divider between them so one can’t
see the other, and one is mixed sex and one is males only, the
growth
difference between the two groups at 4 months is
dramatic. The same sex males will far outpace the growth of the
males in
the tank being kept with females, for they spend much
of their energy sparring with one another over the attention of
the
females.
In all of my tanks I strive for as natural an
environment as possible for the fish with generous floating or
potted plants (no gravel)
high quality water and generally low stock levels. If
it were possible for all the fish in my room to lose their sense
of confinement
by the tanks being large enough, the fish being at low
enough stocking levels and the water being of high enough
quality I would,
and that certainly leads to colonies that are large and
robust.
I have not seen studies demonstrating that fish will
inhibit their growth when in close proximity to other fish
within a confined
area when the water quality, food etc. remain
excellent. There was an article in one of the fish hobbyist
magazines written by
someone that had just exactly that, eventually raising
an absurd number of fish (pet shop swordtails) in a very small
tank, but
with massive, multi day water changes, claiming the
fish still grew to full size. But stress is probably the
greatest strain on long
term good health, and crowded conditions are stressful
for any fish. Increases in population begin to require greater
and more
frequent water changes, depending on the number of fish
you have, which become less effective the more food you need to
add.
I believe it is best, and less stressful on the fish to
simply maintain fewer numbers in larger amounts of water,
particularly if you
want fish that are going to grow at their maximum rate.
Genetics: This is the “wild card” that most people pin
far greater hopes on than they should. Because someone has a
large strain
of something, and they give you young, it doesn’t mean
you are going to get fish as large as what they have. Likewise,
it is not
any guarantee that fry from smaller individuals in a
species will produce large fish. The genes are either there or
they are not.
The genetic makeup of any fish will not change in a
generation or two. In most instances, your attempts to raise
large fish from
a specific line will produce larger fish than you
expect, for the effort and practice to do it right is often not
followed. I recently
obtained a line of guppy that was beautiful in its
finnage and color, and appeared as robust and healthy as I could
have hoped for.
But I had seen fish of that same line in other places,
and they were much larger. I wondered if there had been
developed a
number of lines, some smaller than others. The
difference between the fish I received and what I had seen was
dramatic.
What I bought were well maintained fish from a
reputable breeder (who charged me as much as they cost
anywhere), so I
made the assumption that they were as large as they
could be. I was wrong. I called around, and no one knew enough
about
these fish to say whether they had seen different sized
strains, or that this line could be variable. So I decided to
see if I could
improve on the size of those first individuals, making
an assumption that the genes were there, and the previous
breeder
simply hadn’t raised them to their potential. By the
second generation they had increased in size by over 50%, and by
the third
generation (through careful choosing of breeders) they
were where I had felt they should be.
This also applies to pet store fish. The commercial
breeders make every effort to develop a strong hardy stock that
will get
large and sell as many fish as possible. But from the
time they leave the commercial breeder’s ponds in Florida or
Singapore,
the young fish weren’t fed, or have been on occasional
feedings of dry food until you bring them home from the local
pet store.
The genes are there, but the fish may not be
particularly large or robust in appearance. I have had friends
that have taken
“bread and butter” pet-shop quality swordtails and put
them out in ponds with heavy feeding to create truly large fish
with
color they did not know was possible. A careful choice
of breeders for the next generation, and you end up with a great
fish
that can demand a fair price from other hobbyists.
I knew a discus and angelfish breeder that advertised
that he had angelfish that were a “super-sized” line. In his ads
he
claimed his angelfish got to the size of “dinner
plates.” So I went to visit his facility. He had about 100 large
tanks in a
built-out garage, and his angelfish were indeed large.
(I felt the dinner plate claim was a little much, however), but
they were big, robust angelfish, and he charged
absolute top dollar for them. He kept them in very high
percentage
RO (reverse-osmosis) water and fed lots of live food
many times a day. I asked him if these angels were a mutation
he’d come across, or a fish that had been developed
over many years by another breeder. “No,” he said. He then told
me how he had bought them in a pet shop in San
Francisco. He liked them, fed them well, put them in big tanks,
and
voila! “Dinner plate” sized angelfish. One big problem
he had, however, and he soon went out of business in part
because of it, was that for him to get the maximum size
from his fish he used RO water, so that diseases and biological
contaminants could not challenge the fish, helping to
get the fish slightly larger. People buying his fish trying to
raise
them in regular water found that they didn’t last long.
I bought a few, and they were all dead within a month.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It is
generally agreed that when a male swordtail reaches sexual
maturity (its caudal extension- the sword, has grown out)
that an individual’s growth toward becoming a
substantially larger fish generally stops, and many species of
fish are similar.
Once sexual maturity begins, growth slows down or may
even stop almost completely. The fish that become largest are
those
that mature the latest. Many livebearer populations
will have males that will mature earlier, and their presence
continues
because they are able to mate earlier and continue that
early development trait. Some populations produce smaller sized
males within the same species because of this. These
early maturing males are an evolutionary adaptation, and have
even
developed a breeding strategy of sneaking up on females
and inseminating them without the courtship rituals the fish
generally exhibit. One of the advantages of keeping
fish in same sex tanks as they grow out you can spot the earlier
maturing fish and isolate them. Males that are not
raised around females also grow larger as their energy is not
spent
attempting to mate, and there is not the incentive to
reach maturity earlier in competition with other males to
produce
young.
It is also a common belief that larger alpha males in a
tank will release a growth inhibitor into the water that
inhibits the
growth of other males in a tank, giving them a
reproductive advantage. This is believed to be another reason
that frequent
water changes are a must.
At the same time it has been suggested that young
raised around larger fish will tend to grow larger more quickly
to
develop a competitive advantage for females. There does
seem to be some truth to that, when large water changes
are routinely done to address any growth inhibiting
hormones that may be released. (and to my knowledge, though
widely believed to exist, a growth inhibiting substance
released into the water has never been identified). I tend to
think that much of both beliefs may be no more than
subjective assumptions.
One other factor that arises in many animals, that I
have seen (rarely) in fish, is that occasionally a particularly
large fish
will appear in a batch of young, one that you may feel
is beyond the normal scope or range of size for that species.
You
raise it up, and it appears to be the holy- grail fish
you had been hoping for, only to find that it simply won’t
breed. There
are instances where a large fish- actually a mutation
for size, will come about, only to find that it is sterile. You
can do a
couple things. I would separate the female that dropped
the batch he appeared in and breed her as often as possible),
with the same male if possible) to see if you can
produce more of those mutations, in the hope that eventually one
will
be fertile, or keep the siblings of that fish separate,
keeping an eye on their offspring to see if the mutation
reappears.
I have also found that the fewer times that fish are
moved contributes to more stability for the fish. They do
respond
to this by showing a lower incidence of disease and
consistent growth. I understand the need to move fish as they
grow,
but I will put fish that are big enough to get around
and find food (approx. 3-4 weeks) from a 10 gallon into a large
tank
(such as a 30 gallon), and leave them there until they
are put into single sex tanks (guppies are ready for same sex
tanks
at that age). There they will stay for the remainder of
their lives with the exception of those chosen as breeders or to
be
sold.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
There
are other techniques to grow fish their largest that that can be
beneficial, and that you may want to try.
-Keeping lights on 24 hours. This makes sense; fish
will spend a greater portion of their time awake and growing. To
hold down on algea growth or an increase in temperature
you can choose to use low wattage bulbs. I currently don’t
do this but know of breeders that insist upon it. The
thinking is that the fish will sleep when it needs to, otherwise
it
is kept awake and growing.
-Using salt in the water. Salt has its advantages in
that it will hold down your incidence of disease at approx. 1
tblspn.
Per 5 gallons. Most livebearers tolerate salt well, and
providing a prophylactic dose of salt helps encourage healthier
growth.
-Plants. I use plants in all of my tanks for the
shelter it provides the fish and the effect plants have to keep
the fish calm,
to reduce ammonia and to assist gaseous exchange. Najas
Grass, Java Moss, Java Fern, Watersprite, potted Amazon Swords,
and various crypts and ferns are my favorites.
-Bare bottom tanks. I use all bare bottom tanks. The
tanks are cleaner, easier to maintain and the removal of fish
from a
tank is easier.
-In
a perfect world find a way to keep a live food alive in the tank
that the fish can feed on whenever possible. I raise
daphnia and keep them in my fry tanks, where they will
live for days producing young the fry can feed on. I will often
put 3-4 inch sand filled plastic containers in a fry
tank, seeded with blackworms to graze on. They will stay rooted
in the
sand waving in the water column, and will eat powdered
fish food.
-Being realistic and patient. This takes time, and you
may try with more than one group of fish before you hit your
stride
and the fish begin to start looking as you expect them
to.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So, to
raise large fish;
Find young fish from healthy, ideally good sized
parents.
Put them in a single species, bare bottom tank of at
least 1.5-2 gallons per fish to start, at 75 degrees, some
floating plants,
at least 12 hours of light and fair aeration. As they
become about 1” move to 10 gallon or more per fish (depending on
species). Strong filtration with modest air movement
(depending on species) should be provided. Keep at cooler temps
of natural range for greatest size.
Water quality is everything. Do frequent water changes
of at least 50% weekly, smaller amounts at frequent intervals is
better than large changes done infrequently.
Feed often with good quality food, starting with baby
brine shrimp immediately, look into supplementary live foods.
Clean bottom often to prevent mulm buildup.
And there is one last thing. To give an extreme
example, if you were to set up one tank with one fish and do all
I
mentioned, yes, you may get a large fish. But always
set out with as many as you can provide for, giving yourself the
best odds for success. Some individuals may be
genetically or constitutionally predisposed to be smaller fish,
regardless
of what you do. And above all, spend the time first
putting together a program, system or approach so that it is all
as easy
for you as possible. And though I would like to say
“Good Luck”, hopefully I have shown that luck has very little to
do
with it!
Greg Sage
selectaquatics@gmail.com
selectaquatics.com
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