Fish Getting Stunted In Aquarium

[rdd1952]

Many types of fish stop growing as much as the dry season progresses- I think they detect the build up minerals in the water that naturally come about as a dry season progresses, and this triggers the growth in the fish to slow down, since this would have many benefets during a dry season where there isn't much food and space to swim around in as the lakes and rivers start to dry up.

I think this also would support the hormone theory. The lack of rain in the dry season would allow the hormones to build just as a lack of water changes in our tanks would. Obviously, once the rainy season begins, the water would be replenished and the hormone level would drop.

 

[fry_lover]

i agree, was a very interesting input into the thread that

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Many types of fish stop growing as much as the dry season progresses- I think they detect the build up minerals in the water that naturally come about as a dry season progresses, and this triggers the growth in the fish to slow down, since this would have many benefets during a dry season where there isn't much food and space to swim around in as the lakes and rivers start to dry up.

I think this also would support the hormone theory. The lack of rain in the dry season would allow the hormones to build just as a lack of water changes in our tanks would. Obviously, once the rainy season begins, the water would be replenished and the hormone level would drop.

I agree, i think that these are probably some of the most likely reasons so far for stunted growth in fish .


One thing that i don't quite understand though is the effects of stunted growth on fishes life expectancy. It is well accepted that many fish that suffer bad stunted growth do not live as long as those fish that don't suffer bad stunted growth, but is the shortened life expectancy due to the stunted growth itself or the processes that caused it? I wonder what sort of stress a fish goes through when it suffers from stunted growth, if any at all?

In human beings, the taller you are the more strain your height puts on your heart due to the more work the heart has to do pumping the blood around the body. So a person that was 7ft tall is unlikely to live as long as someone who is 5ft tall if we are just basing the life expectancy on the height factor.

So with stunted growth fish, technically speaking shouldn't a an 8inch long stunted growth goldfish live longer than a 16inch long non-stunted growth goldfish if the factors which caused the stunted growth were removed?

 

[andywg]

In human beings, the taller you are the more strain your height puts on your heart due to the more work the heart has to do pumping the blood around the body. So a person that was 7ft tall is unlikely to live as long as someone who is 5ft tall if we are just basing the life expectancy on the height factor.

So with stunted growth fish, technically speaking shouldn't a an 8inch long stunted growth goldfish live longer than a 16inch long non-stunted growth goldfish if the factors which caused the stunted growth were removed?

However, do people much shorter than the average (dwarves, for want of a better word) tend to live to the average life expectancy?

Obviously the difference in human growth is more genetic than environmental, but I wonder whether anything too far from the mean has a shorter life expectancy (unless it has a great advantage).