Stunted fry

[Elisabeth83]

A few months back I had kept 2 surviving swordtail fry in a breeding net. They lived like that for probably 2 months. They now live in a 14 gallon tank and I've noticed that they just arn't growing much. They are about 4 months old now and are similar in size to my 1.5 - 2 month old guppy fry. I'm thinking they have been stunted from living in the breeding net. What can I expect? Will they grow or are they always going to be small?

 

[guppymonkey]

I had a few black molly fry that I had in a breeder net and they never reached full size even after being transfered to a 55 gallon after a few months. Two out of the three ended up dying after less then a year. The third one is still alive but its about half the size of a normal black molly and its 11 months old.

 

[SnowyzMom]

It's not anything like with goldfish is it? (where if you keep them in small tanks for awhile they stay outwardly small but inside their organs keep growing and they end up getting internal problems and blockages?) That would explain the deaths. That being said, I have a guppy female that was a runt and always grew slow. She was kept in a regular fry tank but has never equalled the other female guppies in size. She's also albino so abit of an anomally anyways. (Not fertile that I know of.)

 

[Paul_MTS]

out of interest how long does it take for live bearer fry to reach the size you find them in fish shops.

some of my fry are about 3 months old now (my platties gave birth with in 2days of me buying) and there a nice kind of size but I haven't seen much gorwth for a while now. they haven't been in anything smaller than a 10 gallon.

 

[Mogurako]

I had my sword fry in a 10 gal and they didnt seem to be growing anymore after about 2 months. so i thinned them out some keeping only about 8 or so. After about a month they grew a just a lil bit more. Not wanting them to be stunted i put them in my 25gal and they doubled in size in a matter of weeks and they are all about 2.5-3 inchs now and only in about 5 months roughly.

Jesse

 

[Tolak]

Read somewhere that the reason some fish in a spawn don't grow as quickly as others is that they are just slow eaters. I've kept some of the runtier angels from a spawn in a seperate tank, about half started to grow more quickly, the other half stayed kind of small.

Tolak

 

[yhbae]

If you do the following, most frys will grow fast:

- Raise temperature (to 84F or so)
- Feed as frequently and as much variety. Live food such as hatched brine shrimps and protein rich food helps. (I do 5 times a day)
- Water change as frequently and as much as you can. (50% every two days for me).

Do the above, and you WILL see growth! Is it worth doing it? That's another story...

It is possible to get platies to grow to LFS sizes in 4 months.

 

[Kittycat]

If you do the following, most frys will grow fast:

- Raise temperature (to 84F or so)
- Feed as frequently and as much variety. Live food such as hatched brine shrimps and protein rich food helps. (I do 5 times a day)
- Water change as frequently and as much as you can. (50% every two days for me).

Do the above, and you WILL see growth! Is it worth doing it? That's another story...

It is possible to get platies to grow to LFS sizes in 4 months.

I agree, I think these help. I also have a similar problem with my guppy fry. I didn't put them in a breeder net, but they grew up crowded, and with some adults. They were stunted for a while, but I noticed that when I started doing more frequent, larger water changes and fed BBS more often, they grew up faster. Another experiment I did which I feel has helped is to isolate a few (even if just in a small tank, e.g. I put 3-5 fry in 2.5 gallons). I don't know if it's because I pay more attention, feed more often, or do more water changes, or all those factors, but the isolated ones have growth spurts and suddenly develop their gonopodiums. After that, I move them back and take another set to isolate.

 

[Def]

Platy fry get "shop size" (whatever that is, I've seen a massive difference in shop size FWIW) in anywhere from 3 to 6 months. As for stunted growth, I think it depends how long they've been in the net. For various reasons I had half a batch of fry in a net and half in the tank. When I released the net fry to the tank, they were noticeably smaller than the tank fry (25% or more). After about a month, they were indistinguishable from the tank fry.