Fry Growth Rate

[Andie]

I was just taking a really thorough look at my fry tonight - something my schedule of the past couple days haven't really allowed - and I realised that Big Guy is now at least 25 percent bigger than Little Guy, and nearly double the size of Dark Guy. It isn't that they haven't gotten bigger, too- he's just gotten much bigger much faster. Is this degree of acceleration normal in one baby but not the others?

He hasn't displayed any aggression toward the other two that I've seen, or I'd be thinkling about removing him- he actually seems to be the gentle giant of the trio, so the acceleration seems only to be in his physical growth, not his 'psychological' growth, or however you'd term it. But the huge disparity between the three of them is making me wonder.

I don't think I'd have thought twice about this with a larger spawn, but since it's just the three of them I can't help but wonder when it's just the three of them in a ten gallon. Is it normal for one baby to grow this fast when the only other two in the tank stay that much smaller?

 

[wuvmybetta]

Yes.



In every small spawn I've had there is always a gigantoid.Have you noticed if he eats more than the rest?
Sometimes some are just faster and they get more. I've noticed, in larger spawns, that the smaller fish sort of look around aimlessly as food rushes by them and quickly disappears into the mouth of a faster,larger siblings, so it seems that it's almost their own fault that they're not growing as fast (but not, but you know what I mean....ya snooze,ya lose?) of course I make sure they get some, too, no matter how many times we have to try

Overall, don't worry because once they're jarred they always catch up.

 

[supersixone]

i have 5 or 6 (i'm not sure, it's so hard to have all of them in line of sight at once) who are 3 weeks old in a 10 gallon and the biggest one is nearly twice the size of the littlest one. the other ones are all somewhere in between.

 

[Andie]

In every small spawn I've had there is always a gigantoid.Have you noticed if he eats more than the rest?
Sometimes some are just faster and they get more.

He actually seems to be slower than the other two

That said, though, yes he is definitely the hunter. He's always patrolling the bottom of the tank, while the smaller guys like to hang around the heater (I suspect there's a high-yield planaria hatchery back there, or something! ). So in terms of food consumption, yes, it makes sense to say Big Guy would get more, since now that I've started crushing up pellets to supplement their diet, it mostly falls to the biottom of the tank (his stomping grounds) whereas the planaria were all over.

tyvm both of you- I feel much better about my teenies )