Silver Sharks Myth?

[carney]

hi
will silver sharks outgrow a tank or grow to teh size of the tank.
My lfs say they cannot outgrow a tank, just grow smaller

???

 

[england]

Thats stunting a fish which is not good for the fish and leads to health issues and shortened life span,

 

[SugarQube]

This is sadly why I have to re-home my 2 silver sharks they are small at the minute but read up on them after buying them and I cannot keep them as its just cruel

 

[Truck]

a fish in a tank too small will release a hormone which stops its body growing and not its organs, its organs keep growing and then start to crush the swim-bladder, and then the fish will have problems with balance etc and that can lead to other disease and even death

 

[andywg]

a fish in a tank too small will release a hormone which stops its body growing and not its organs, its organs keep growing and then start to crush the swim-bladder, and then the fish will have problems with balance etc and that can lead to other disease and even death

Absolute rubbish.

If you can find one bit of evidence that this occurs I will eat my keyboard. It has been discussed time and time again on the forum and the result is always the same: the above does not happen.

The only science I have seen on stunted fish indicates that the organs are just as healthy and the right size.

 

[JenCliBee]

a fish in a tank too small will release a hormone which stops its body growing and not its organs, its organs keep growing and then start to crush the swim-bladder, and then the fish will have problems with balance etc and that can lead to other disease and even death

Absolute rubbish.

If you can find one bit of evidence that this occurs I will eat my keyboard. It has been discussed time and time again on the forum and the result is always the same: the above does not happen.

The only science I have seen on stunted fish indicates that the organs are just as healthy and the right size.

so how do u explain stunted abnormally shaped plecs ie commons ...gibbys wot casues them 2 be deformed when stunted ?

 

[raptorrex]

a fish in a tank too small will release a hormone which stops its body growing and not its organs, its organs keep growing and then start to crush the swim-bladder, and then the fish will have problems with balance etc and that can lead to other disease and even death

Absolute rubbish.

If you can find one bit of evidence that this occurs I will eat my keyboard. It has been discussed time and time again on the forum and the result is always the same: the above does not happen.

The only science I have seen on stunted fish indicates that the organs are just as healthy and the right size.

gota agree with andywg, not something that happens often
its true some fish seem to be able to adjust their growth according to space food and predation, carp are a good example of this. indeed this is where i think the "myth" comes from. goldfish are carp, they show a remarkable ability to adjust growth. the first introduction to "pet" fish many, used to get, was the goldfish. hence the myth. even so this does not make them healthy fish!
fish tend to live longer if they have enough space. this, also, tends to make them get bigger too.

 

[andywg]

so how do u explain stunted abnormally shaped plecs ie commons ...gibbys wot casues them 2 be deformed when stunted ?

Because the entire fish is deformed. Just like some large growing carp end up with curved spines after being kept in quarters are too small. This is the entire fish being deformed due to its environment. This is not the fish ceasing growth of the muscles and skeleton but having the organs continue to grow.

I repeat again, show me one piece of actual evidence that the outside body stops growing and the inside carries on. This call has been made a number of times over the last few years on this forum and guess how much evidence has been presented. None. Because it just doesn't happen. If it really did happen I would expect at least some mention of it in the ichthyology text books I have (if only in passing when discussing growth rates).

Keeping fish in tanks too small for them is not a good thing, but trying to stop people from doing it by providing false horror stories is not the best way to do so in my opinion. I'd rather we dealt in facts.