stunting...

[trashion]

a few years ago, i was a very, VERY bad fishkeeper. my LFS told me i could have 5 fish of any tetra variety in a 10 gallon tank. so i had 5, of all different tetra varieties. needless to say, it didn't work out. the fish all only lived a few months to a year. i never did water changes, my "tank cleaning" was basically me breaking down the tank and scrubbing everything and changing all of the water. all they ever ate was tetra-min tropical flakes. ...yes, i do feel very guilty.

but i have one fish that withstood my poor care, and he's still with me today. gregory, my white skirt tetra. i'd estimate his age to be about four years old. the only thing is, i've read that skirts get pretty big, and i've seen full-grown skirts at work that are about 3" and very..broad? i guess that's the best way to put it. i've read that skirts reach their adult size at 1 to 2 years, but gregory never really grew much. he's small, only about 1.5 inches, and only a little broad. a skirt i bought only a few months ago is about the same size as him now, and everyone else is thriving and growing but him. my fish now are in a beautiful healthy tank that they seem to enjoy immensely. i've read about stunting happening with not enough space, but i don't think that was it. can fish stunt from just being in bad conditions? i'd assume so, i've just never heard of it.

please don't judge me for my poor fishkeeping, i regret it very much now!!! just wanted to hear any input.

[JustOneMore20]

There are many things that lead to stunting. Keeping the fish in small tanks is one and poor water conditions is another. Growth is also affected by what you feed fish and the temperatures you keep them at.

[emc7]

I saw video of an experiment where many discus grew as quickly to full size in a tiny tank that had very frequent water changes as spawnmates raised in a big tank with fewer water changes. It was offered as proof that something fish release into the water is responsible for stunting, not the size of the tank. Never having a water change in a adequately sized tank is the inverse of that experiment. So its reasonable that no water changes can stunt fish. Apparently fish have a way of testing their surroundings so as not to overgrow them. It doesn't make stunting healthy, just interesting as an evolutionary adaption. It make evolutionary sense to stay small, make babies, and die young to keep the species alive until conditions improve.

[Buggy]

It could also be that he's just a "runt". I have two of those myself....one bolivian ram and one krib. All of the others bought at the same time and the same age are normal size but these two just didn't grow as big. They have all had the same foods, same water conditions except the rams are in a 29 gal and the kribs are in a 55 gal.
Don't feel too guilty. I'll bet you can't point to a dozen people on this or any other forum that didn't do something similar when they first started. The point is, you learned from it and are now a responsible fishkeeper! WTG!

[ikermalli]

At least it was just a stunt of growth not a death. You can call him a dwarf tetra :P

[neilfishguy]

i think I have an angel like that in my 55g the other 3 i got at the same time are now breeder size and he is still same size i got him! i feel sorry for the little guy

[Dr_House]

I would say a dozen is a modest number for people who got a bad start in fish-keeping. Nearly everyone I know got into this hobby by killing a tremendous number of fish. I don't think you need to be flogged with additional guilt. You messed up, you fixed it, everything is good.

It could be your fish is a runt, or it could be that it was stunted from your pre-good-fish-keeping days due to nutrition or water quality. Once fish are stunted, they tend not to continue growing, so whichever reason you're dealing with, the size of your tetra is not likely to change. Enjoy him for what he is.