Fish growth rates

[norfolkgarden]

I would like to start a thread to learn about growth rates of different fish.

This is prompted by our yellow tang and our copperband butterfly.
The yellow tang has exploded in growth in just a few months. It has completely bypassed our copperband butterfly fish in both girth and overall size.

The yellow tang started as both a potential rescue and a desire to have one that lived peacefully with our 1 year old copperband butterfly.
The copperband started at about 1.75" a year ago. It is now between 2 and 2.25".

We had tried several 2" yellow tangs, one at a time. Both of them were too aggressive for the copperband butterfly and had to be rehomed.

I really wanted a yellow tang but the copperband is 1st fish in that tank.

4 months ago I ran across the smallest yellow tang I had ever seen.
It was emaciated and approximately 1.75".

It behaved well and has grown to about 2.5".
The copper band is still stuck between 2 and 2.25".
They get along even though the copperband normally takes longer to grab food.

Live black worms are a regular staple except for a 3 month gap the past summer where the copperband lost some weight.
I'm now feeding frozen clams on a daily basis in addition to regular frozen and black worms.
Copperband is slowly getting fat enough to where I would like to see it.
Yellow tang now looks like it's ready to meet Jenny Craig.

 

[norfolkgarden]

All 5 of our visible Royal gramma have grown dramatically.
When they were added 7 months ago, they were as little as 3/4" to 1.25".
Now the smallest visible one is 1.25" and the largest is between 2" and 2.25".

The (1.5") starving yellow tang has exploded in growth (now 2.5") and completely bypassed the 1 year old copperband butterfly fish (2"). The copperband remains fat and happy but still small.
We have been feeding even more clams in an attempt to increase the copperbands growth.
(Looks like I'm never getting a derasa.)
The 5 yellow 'coris' wrasse have also grown noticeably in 4 months. From a range of 3/4" to 1.5" they are now 1.25" to 2.25"
The small longnose hawk fish and small flame hawk fish have not grown much at all. Both are still active, the first to feed and wander around the tank at their leisure.
The 2 ocelaris clownfish are fine but also not growing nearly as fast as some of the others. They reach the food even faster than the hawk fish. ?

Curious to hear some of your different fish stories. [emoji846]

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

Good question. I have wondered this myself.

 

[ca1ore]

My own personal experience with tangs is that they grow rapidly to about half of their claimed wild size and then slow considerably, even stop. Most of my tang gang, many over 10 years old, are all about half size. None show signs of nutritional deficiency. I’ve not kept a CB in many years. Just too timid.

BTW, kudos for bringing that YT back from the edge. It looks very healthy.

 

[PDR]

I have also wondered this as well. Whenever I go to a public aquarium it always seems their fish are always much bigger than mine, especially the Kole tangs. My Kole and flame angel both grew to about 3" then stopped for the longest time, the Kole has just gone through a growth spurt and is about 3.75" now.

All the other fish seem to be growing at a reasonable rate, but they are mostly smaller fish. Still not as fast as I would expect, and I feed a ton.

 

[lakai]

In 3 months my 1.5" tomini tang that is now 2.5" and a purple tang that went from 2" to a little more than 3" in the same time. A 3.5" sohal tang bought in november is pushing 5" in two months. I also just got a 0.5" yellow bellow hippo tang the other day, I will update on its growth if it survives.

 

[67chevellemalibu2]

My christmas wrasse and copperband haven’t grown, but everything else in my tank has gotten bigger, even my two fire shrimp and diamond goby have increased in size.

 

[Kal93]

Reviving this thread. I purchased a 2.5" copperband ~6 months ago and it has now grown to ~3.5-4". He eats very well (1 oyster daily) and is only 1 of 2 fish in my tank. I imagine that the growth is largely due to frequent grazing and less stress. Hopefully he continues to grow over the next year!