Are BN's naturally slow growers??

It seems like they are extremely slow growers or am I doingit wrong?.... I have them in a 4ft x 3ft x3ft outside pond and do regular (70%)water changes with cycled water from an adjacent empty pond.....


Water temperatures is on average around 24/6 and I feedflakes and a variety of vegies... and still I am barely able to distinguishbetween newly hatched fry and those older than 2 months...there are only 5adults in there ....


The pond gets natural sunlight so there should be amplealgae....

 

@Cheetah... Slow fry growth rates are often attributed to an underlying parasitical problem... Got a microscope? Maybe worth your while to do a scrape and just see what is on them... With them bieng in an outside pond they should be growing like weeds with all the algae available to them... If the little guys are having to fight off low levels of parasites - it will negatively impact their growth rates...

 

Yes they are slow growers but then you should be able to distinguish a two month fry from a few days fry.
Especially if you doing Regular 70% WC on that giant setup
Try switch from flakes to some good pleco wafers
Decrease any strong water currents
Add more surface area
If the babies don’t feel safe they hide during the day and only come out to feed at night .
Remove any dither fish
Have you done the microscope investigation?

 

Thanks Khalid.... Since posting this thread something happened and a week later I could distinguish 3 group sizes.... they just suddenly shot off and I could just about see them grow.... BUT!.... sadly..... during my last water change.... (late afternoon).... the heater did not make good contact when I plugged it in and next morning the water temp was round 3 deg C.....

Even some of the adults were laying belly up..... lost about 70 fry..... chucked in a few buckets of warm water and fixed the plug.... The remaining fish are now fine ..... It's a major setback, but I have about 90 fry left and 13 adults.... (8 of the adults are in another 2m circular pond).... I am surprised at the low temps they can tollerate...... looks like there is currently more breeding in progress....

 

Shame poor little suckers.
Three degrees and they alive. Wow! never knew they can tolerate such low temperatures. Are you sure the thermometer is accurate? Maybe the top water was 3 but the Bottom was higher?
Good luck with the survivers.

 

Can also confirm that internal parasites slow their growth. I have a stunted BN because of it.:notrust:

 

i have 3 batches of BN fry at this point in time, and i see that in my one tank (1.5ft), the bigger (1st batch) are growing like mad, but the second batch are staying very small, it seems like the larger ones keep on shoving the smaller ones away from the food? i feed the baby marrow every second day, and ever second day they get algae waffers, so i know the amount of food is enough, yet the bigger ones keep on eating like pigs!

In my main tank (4ft), i have 3 batches,, they are all growing very well, and even the smaller one (2nd batch) are bigger than the other from the same batch in the 1.5ft.


They are all healthy and doing well, think i need to move them all into the 4ft.... and i might have to split the adult male and female, as they are making babies at one hell of a rate! non stop for the past 2-3 months!

 

hehe was i the only one who got this!!!??

@Cheetah 3deg??? that is amazing!

 

Had my arm in there up to the shoulders (to turn one adult upright) .... Had to retrieve very quickly... it actually hurt from cold .... Ambient outside temp was -4 Deg C.....

 

@Cheetah Yep cold water under 6'C burns like fire.
Is there no product that warns u when the temp drops?

@Vez , That is correct the bigger fish outcompete the smaller batch also resulting in higher losses
Try separate the second batch for a month or two. It just gives them a head start

 

Thanks Khalid!

Going to redo the smalll tank, and will remove the larger ones. Its a bit of topic, but can/will normal BN's be fine with Albino ones in the same tank, as at some point they will mate? @Khalid ?

 

@Vez They will be fine but I find the browns more boisterous

 

Thanks Khalid!

 

@Cheetah, if i think about it, the chances are that they are growing a bit more slowly than expected probably also due to the ambient temperatures being colder in general, growth rates would generally be faster in warmer weather.. what temperature do you keep the pond at with the heater?

 

This was a once off because the heater had a faulty connection..... in the first post (of this thread)... I do state that generally my water temp ranges between 24 and 27.....

 

oops. missed that!