Growth Rate

[daveeyj]

hi guys! just about set up my tank for african predators. i have 1 small spotted climbing perch, an african butterfly fish, a small senegal bichir and a featherin. i was just wondering about the climbing perch's growth rate? what sort of size do they usually get and how quickly will they get there? i am told about 20cm tops? also what diet would be best for my fish? at the moment they live off catfish pellet and prawns and my butterfly lives off dried insects of various descriptions.
thanks for your help

 

[mattlee]

ive seen perches at about 5-6 inch and quite deep bodied that were pretty old fish that were kept in a decent sized tank. growth rate depends on a few things like water quality and feeding, not just what you feed but how often. remember the more food you feed the water quality can/will suffer so more or bigger water changes may be needed to keep them extra healthy.

 

[daveeyj]

ok well i have an under gravel filter and 2 fluval filters which are each stated to be a size bigger than my tank. i also clean the gravel and do water changes at about 30% a month so that sound ok? i also feed once a day just before i turn the lights out thanks for replying

 

[mattlee]

for healthier fish i would change 30% every week not every month........ also once a day feeding will keep the fish alive and kicking but to get best growth from fish they need more frequent feeding of a varied and healthy diet, maybe 3 times per day using small amounts each time instead of one big feed.

try mixing high protein products with meaty products, maybe products that contain garlic and spirulina for the immune system. a good mixture of foods will be much more healthy for the fish. there are loads of food products out there to choose from but mixing them a bit will be healthy for your fish and also give it the best range in its diet. think of your fish like us, we eat on average 3x per day and eat different things every time usually because its healthier for us to do so.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Three of my four Leopard Bushfish (Ctenopoma acutirostre) were bought two years ago the size of a 20p coin, they are now ~10cm long and 7cm deep. Eventually they should reach ~14cm.

My African Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi) was bought two years ago, perhaps a fraction over 5cm long excluding the long tail fin, It is now ~7cm. I'm expecting it to reach 10-12cm.

I do not own a Featherfin Syno (Synodontis euptera), but I do have numerous syno species in my tanks (notata; decora; brichardi; congica; flavitaeniata; nigriventris; Microsynodontis polli and sp. 1). A couple of the four flavs (Pyjama) that I've had for a year have probably grown the most, going from ~8cm to ~11cm. They guttingly died in a horrid Ich outbreak back in February, but I did grow on 6 S. decora youngsters from tiny ~3cm babies to 10-12cm becoming chunky fish. Like many fish, they have their biggest growth spirt early on in life, but continue growing right upto their time is up.

Food for ABF and Ctenopoma: I feed Hikari Cichlid Gold baby floating pellets; Tetra Cichlid XL (Doromin); Tetra Prima; the bushfish seem to love Hikari mini algae wafers and the JMC catfish pellets I drop in for their tankmates!

 

[daveeyj]

thanks! this has been really helpful althoughi am struggling to get my fish to feed throughout the day so getting them to eat several meals a day is difficult, i have tried cutting the amount to to very small quantities but they still seem to just leave it any ideas?