Bristlenose not growing?

[michael.qian]

Hi all, bought 2 blackeyed golden bristlenose 8 months ago.

They both seem healthy and doing well.

One of them is male, growing very well, getting bristles, but not full size yet. (how long does it take to get to full size?)

I feed them algae pellets, zucchini, and pellets that are intended for clown loaches.

Problem is the other one has hardly grown at all, almost the same size as when I bought it 8 months ago, what can cause it not to grow?

cheers

[Simian]

They live a long time and take a long time to grow out fully, females are smaller than the males too.

How big are they atm?

[michael.qian]

not sure, but approximately

male is about 6-7cm long.

the smaller one is about 4cm?

[mr pleco]

smaller one posssibly a runt of a litter does happen or its female and grows smaller

[whetu]

I wouldn't worry too much about its lack of growth. Juvenile fish often have growth spurts where they don't grow for ages then suddenly grow a lot in a short time.

On the other hand, have you watched the two fish eating? And do they have places to go, where they can get away from each other? Just to be sure that the smaller one is getting her/his fair share of food and isn't being bullied by the bigger one.

I have two bristlenoses. They were originally in two different tanks and developed different feeding habits due to the habits of their other tank-mates. They have now been in the same tank for about 18 months but they still have different feeding habits and the one that spends all day eating is still smaller than the other! I suspect the big one probably eats all night and gets any left-overs that the other fish have left lying around.