decorus growth

rfb · Post by **rfb** » 11 Sep 2004, 17:30

I had some decorus die on me in a weird way but the queen arabesque was sick direct from store and I did not quarantine it.The pleco looked VERY healthy so that is the reason that I did not do tha
t and I payed for it.

The real reason for this letter is that the last decorus I had were very slow to grow and I wonder is this a trait of this fish because I have tried lots of different things but they still grow slowly just like the zebra pleco that I have,I expect this of him but synodontis seem in my experience grow fast.

Post by **corybreed** » 11 Sep 2004, 23:07

I don't find S. decorus a particularly slow grower. How large was the tank?

Mark

rfb · Post by **rfb** » 11 Sep 2004, 23:50

ok this is something that may sound crazy but the two that I just got are less than an inch so I put them in the 10 gallon.Now before you reach through the fibreoptics and wring my neck,the smallest in the syno tank is about 5 inches so I thiught that I would give them the chance to get a bit bigger than they are right now before I scare the crap out of them and put them in with the big guys do you think that this wa sthe wroong way to go?

Post by **corybreed** » 12 Sep 2004, 00:44

Less than an inch is very small. Were they tank raised? Youwere right it is probably to small to go with the larger Syno's.

Mark`

Post by **Dinyar** » 12 Sep 2004, 03:10

While it is dangerous to generalize about growth rates in Synodontis, S. decorus -- like most riverine Synos -- grows rapidly when given proper care.

I would not worry about keeping fish even just one centimeter long with much larger S. decorus. I do this all the time and have never had a problem.

Dinyar

rfb · Post by **rfb** » 12 Sep 2004, 15:51

I am not sure if they were tank raised but I do think that this is very likely.When in doubt I think that an error on the side of caution cannot relly be a bad thing.these little guys would probably had some problems as they would not be going into another tank of decorus but in with the big schalls and 2 angelicus and the one that I think is an occelifer but have yet to make an accurate id on him so I think that this would be to much as that is what I think did in the others being to small does have its drawbacks

manoa · Post by **manoa** » 13 Sep 2004, 11:01

Hi. I bought 3 syno. decorus about 1 or 2 months ago. They were an inch or smaller, total length. I put them in a 10 gallon with a rock formation and some floating plants. The only other occupants were about 6 small tetras and a small bushy nosed pleco. I also did not want to put them in my 55-gallon with 5 clown loaches that are between 3" and 5". I fed them Hikari Sinking Pellets and hardly saw them. I just moved fish around and placed them in a 70-gallon tank with bigger fish. They are now about 2" to 2.5". I was surprised when I moved their rock and saw how big they had gotten. They are very shy with the lights on. Much, much shyer than the syno. multipunctatus that I have with them now.

wayneminot · Post by **wayneminot** » 13 Sep 2004, 19:49

Fish give off growth pheremones into the water. When the tank has less water volume they will run into these growth pheremones more often which tells them to slow their growth so they don't overcrowd. If you change a large amount of your water very often theoretically this should make them grow faster. Ok so I heard this from someone in a fish shop one time so it might not be 100% reliable but it seems to make sense to me. Maybe I should try and dig up some more info on it.