Merlin The Dwarf Common Plec

[hellohefalump]

I've had Merlin for two years now, and so far he has only attained 7 inches. He is definately a common plec. When I first got Merlin, I was told that common plecs could live in cold water tanks, so I had him in with my goldfish (180litre tank) for a year and a half. In there, he grew from 1.5" to 5". In August I got a new 100gal and put Merlin in with my tropical community. Since then, he has grown 2 more inches, making him 7". He seems to have stopped growing now though. The tank is well planted with sand substrate and lots of hiding places and I feed a mixture of foods - flake, catfish pellets, algae wafers, mussel, cockle, prawn, bloodworm, daphnia.... Aren't common plecs meant to grow really fast? Apart from being little, Merlin seems perfectly happy. Could I have stunted him by keeping him in cold water for so long? By cold water, I mean 20-22 degrees C in the winter rising to around 24/5 in the summer.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Alot of people say common plecs can live in coldwater tanks, they can survive sure, but because the water slows down their metabolism it also slows down their growth and i can see where this would be bad for a young common plec during its first year as this is when it does its most growth...so he could be stunted in the sense not from lack of space put low energy levels during his growth spurt...I personally wouldn't advise tropical fish like common plecs for coldwater tanks simply because they are really tropical fish.
Since he's at least 2yrs old i wouldn't expect him to get much bigger as he's already done the vast majority of growing he will ever do in his life, he might grow perhaps another 1inch or 2 over the next 5yrs but thats about all i'd expect from him now- i bet he is enjoying life though in the 100gal !

 

[Fishy412]

yes i think thats accurate. he missed his biggest growth spurt but i dont think it should do any permanent damage to him aside from the fact that he wont get that big