Stunted Fish Growth

[merlinblack]

You have only had these fish for a year? How big were they when you got them?

Longer lived fish take years to fully grow. It can take 2-5+ yr for a large fish to get to be full sized. Honestly I would not worry about it. IMO it seems like if they are about a year old and half the size they should be it's fine. red tailed chalceus get to be around 10" your is 1 yr and 5" that's fine I'm sure he is still growing he just slowed down. Females tend to be smaller 8". These fish can live to be 20 yr.

synodontis flavitaeniatus gets 6"

signal shark ?? Do you mean Labiobarbus festivus aka signal barb? They get 9".

Now in 2 yr from now they are still small then you can freak out.

Cheers for that, I didnt know the scientific name for the signal shark/barb. I've only seen them in one shop so didnt know if people knew what they were and I hadnt seen anything in books or on the net about them.
I've had the signals for 2 years but I dont think they have grown at all for at least a year, had the chalceus for about 2 years as well. I stupidly bought some buck tooth tetra and put them in with just 2 chalceus a couple of years back not knowing anything about the buckk tooth and ended up with the chalceus hiding in a corner having had their scales eaten. I got rid of the buck tooth and the chalceus grew back their scales, I'm surprised they survived it. I think the chalceus are the same, I bought them at 2" and they grew to about 5" in the first year and now seem to have stopped. I think the nitrates might have got high or something when i had them in the smaller tank and stunted them.

 

[snowflake311]

These are long lived fish I bet they are still growing slowly. Could be that they are just on the small side. You have had fish before your not new to this. Just keep feeding they good food do your weekly wc and wait I bet they will grow more. Like I said before they are still young.