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Ok heres one for you all.

I purchased 6 angels and put them in my 150g back in I believe march and by the 6 month mark, their bodies went from the size of a dime to about 2 1/2 to 3 inches. and about 6 months ago, a friend of mine purchased 2 angels and has them in a 25g tall and they were about the size of a dime. we both do nothing different in tank maintance or feeding and these guys havent grown at all.

Is this something common?

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

In the 25g tank, it is likely the nitrAte levels get
much higher quicker than in your 150g tank.
NitrAtes have been directly linked to stunting in fish,
espescially in the wild.
Also, in more space, fish will grow quicker for many reasons, low nitrAtes, more space, and more food availability are usually causes.

If your friend wants the angels to grow faster,
they need to feed more, and do more water changes.


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Even if the nitrates are low there are still factors that effect growth if water changes aren't done frequently enough. If all the fish are being fed the same I'd guess larger or more frequent water changes are needed for the fish to grow.

I would disagree with the nitrate speculation, as almost all fish have to deal with extended periods of nitrogenous toxicant overloads in seasonal spurts. If nitrates were the root cause of stunting, all fish everywhere would be severely undersized.

The difference is probably the space that the fishes are in.

In a 150, your Angels will grow BIG. Because they have the space to grow.

In a 25 tall, even if those two Angels are on their own, their growth will probably be a good deal slower. Though they should have grown at least some amount in 6 months.

One possibility to consider - intestinal worms. Try telling your friend to feed his Angels with a deworming food in a hospital tank, then transfer the fishes back to their usual home once they've been dewormed. It's possible that they have a bad gut parasite loading and these are stealing most of the nutrients that the fishes need to grow. Other than that, I can't say why they haven't grown, though if a bad parasite loading was a problem, they'd have manifested other symptoms by now ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I would disagree with the nitrate speculation, as almost all fish have to deal with extended periods of nitrogenous toxicant overloads in seasonal spurts. If nitrates were the root cause of stunting, all fish everywhere would be severely undersized.

I will post below several scholarly articles
on occassions of fish stunting and whether or not
high nitrAtes can cause this. NitrAtes can also cause
stunting in other life forms as well, such as trees
and other plants, amphibians, and reptiles, not just fish.

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/factsheets/nitrate-e.html

http://www.springerlink.com/content/m070024m71wur474/

http://www.wri.wisc.edu/wgrmp/95dnr140.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2858311&dopt=Abstract

http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2001AM/finalprogram/abstract_21221.htm

http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2006/final/threats/threat_pollution.html

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/general/publications/pubs/riversst.htm



Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
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Perhaps I'm not reading any of these articles carefully enough (I did not, admittedly, click on all of thme), but from what I've read, all of what they're saying is that nitrate is a nitrogenous toxin. That is undisputed and not what I'm arguing. Rather, I'm saying that in nearly all, if not all (especially tropical, freshwater fish that are subject to distinct seasonal droughts) fish are not heavily affected by levels of nitrate, developmentally. I realize now that I probably should have added that yound, sacbound fry and eggs should probably be disregarded here, but my case still stands.

I'll have to read up on all the rest of this, but I can say water changes are not a problem, they are done bi-weekly. And are never usually more than 20% and about 6 months or so a 50% change is done.

I do water tests monthly and am up again for one, but on my last test, everything was fine and where it should be. But I'll post what the results are when its complete

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction