new fish!!

[Rikko]

No one's offended; just having a little fun..
Anyways, aquarists' observations over time about that sort of thing generally can't be reliable - there are simply too many variables in a home aquarium that aren't accounted for. I don't know of any lab experiments that have been conducted but I expect that the general laws of biology as I understand them should hold. In short: there is no mind over matter. The conscious mind cannot control biological growth just as it can't control, say, body temperature or blood pressure (directly - giving yourself a panic attack I'm not counting).
Quite often I got FW customers swearing up and down that their goldfish did great in a bowl and it only grew to 2" long (this is a comet that will reach at least 12" in proper conditions). They correlated the fish's size with the bowl - as though the fish determined that it was taking up x% of the environmental volume and thus was not permitted to grow anymore. They didn't consider that once the fish grew to 2" that their monthly regimen of doing a partial water change wasn't sufficient to purge wastes from the water - the fish was living in absolute filthy water and its growth was retarded by the wretched living conditions and not by being stubborn or clever.

That said, I have definitely noticed much higher growth rates from fish in larger tanks as compared to smaller ones. Is there something there? I still kind of doubt it, because then I go back to my discus-rearing days.. When they were in a 3 gallon tank I did a 50% water change every other day. They grew like stink. Once they were big enough I moved them to a 20 gallon and did maybe 25% every week to ten days. Growth rate slowed down dramatically.

Nay, I think water quality is the real culprit as far as growth goes. A large (read: will get large) fish in a smaller tank isn't guaranteed to be in sordid condition, but I'd bet money that the water is going to be noticeably poorer than the same fish in a larger tank.

[Corey]

Getting back to the original post, try getting a wave action going in the tank, your tang will love it and will come out to play in the currents. Same thing happened to me, my YT never came out of hiding until I started running a SQUID and wave bar.Now he never hides.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by megatron_55

Bla Bla Bla . . . not to offend anyone but my post CLEARLY says "I THINK!" . . . . . . thanks for coming out

I,m sorry some posts may have poked fun. Mine was dead serious, for the tangs sake but mostly for other new aquarists than read one of the many threads like this, on the various boards and think it will work fine because someone else does it.

Its just advice, based on experience.

[Beverly]

Tang Police Officer Arrested:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04fool/news.htm

[Skimmerking]

Now tha is funny at heck ,,Imagine doing that , i guess that the guy who got stuffed will never put a larger fish in to a smaller tank again.


mike

[Willow]

[BCOrchidGuy]

LOL

[Samw]

For what its worth, I bought a Hippo Tang in early 2002 that was about 1" long and I sold it slightly over a year later when it reached 4" long (That's an increase of 16x in body area in about a year)

I bought another 1" baby Hippo Tang on May 18th, 2003 and I sold it on Jan 7, 2005 (20 months later) when it was again 4" long (16 times bigger).

My tank is 38G. I wouldn't personally keep a fish beyond 4" in a tank that size. Fortunately, my nitrates was close to 0. At one point, I had 2 large fish over 4" (1 Tang, and 1 something else) in there and my nitrates was over 75. After I gave the largest one to EmilyB, I was able to control my nitrates.

Here's a comparison. The large Tang in the first pic started off the same size, as the little Tang in that pic. After I bought the little tang, I immediately sold the large Tang within days. As of today, I have sold the 2nd Tang as well. My tank is now Tangless and looks really bare. To me, it seems true that healthy Tangs grow very fast and my small tank did not prevent mine from growing fast.

May 19th, 2003 - Large Tang in this pic had grown from 1" to 4" in a year or so. The baby Tang in the pic would eventually grow to 4" as well as seen below.



Here is Tang number 2 (which was the baby Tang from above) 20 months later on Jan 7, 2005



Interestingly, in this time frame, the fish were all healthy and thriving. However, all of the Acros from the first pic are no longer with me (They all died).