bulldogod Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Someone was telling me today that if I wanted my fish to grow bigger then need to do heaps of water changes, 3x week or even daily water changes and said would notice big change in growth. anyone tried this. Want to bulk up my oscar and flowerhorn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 its what people do with discus. works but its a total pain doing wc's everyday. you shouldn't have problems bulking up those fish even with water changes once or twice a day. feed em home made beef heart mix with garlic and thyme, and hikari. :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Fish grow faster in higher quality water. Water changes remove all of the chemicals that are in the part of the water you take out (so if you remove 50% of the water, you take out 100% of the toxins in that water, leaving only 50% of the total toxins behind). Better/more feeding will help, but then you risk having left over food that decays in the tank. Better filtration in a bigger tank will help this. So, your formula for fast growing fish - keep your fish in an over filtered, over fed tank and water change every time you walk past. I have guppies that are born and grow to pretty much full grown (mummies laying 100 fry at a time) in 3 months because I have 5 x the filtration recommended on the tank, feed them about 6 times a day and do a 50% w/c every day. If you don't want to be doing the water changes so often (so maybe 2 or 3 a week) then filtration and feeding is the next best thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Some fish (polypterus, discus for example) secrete hormones that are intended to stunt the growth of competing fish, so when growing them out together regular water changes to remove such chemicals are important. But generally speaking, if your nitrite/ammonia are undetectable and the nitrate below ~30ppm you're wasting your time doing more water changes IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 I always thought that it was to remove mainly the hormones that the other fish secrete to stunt the growth of their tank mates, and also to remove waste from feeding heaps.. Good food is a must and lots of it, I go by variety rather than one good food, foods like beef heart are high in protein and great for growth but because of the way that fish can't process warm blooded fats will ultimately shorten the fishes lives and cause problems, probably ok in a varied diet though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Good food is a must and lots of it, I go by variety rather than one good food, foods like beef heart are high in protein and great for growth but because of the way that fish can't process warm blooded fats will ultimately shorten the fishes lives and cause problems, probably ok in a varied diet though The red meat one is such a minefield. I feed my cichlids shrimp and mussels and crab meat because I just don't know about the red meat situation. Like Ryan says, a varied diet is going to be better that the premium food all the time. Live food is also good; I've found that fish tend to have a nicer shape when fed live food they need to hunt; probably because it builds up their muscles a bit differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquatopia Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Apparently a higher water temp also increases faster growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 It speeds everything up including (unfortunately) diseases and death. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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