PlanetCatfish.com

Hi,
i have a royal panaque that was 1.5" when i bought him about 6 months ago, he seems to feed ok and has plenty plants that he eats as well as bog wood, and it eats the algea tablets i put in, but he doesnt seem to grow very quickly as he has only grown and inch in six months. it is in a twenty gallon tank at the moment but i am planning to move him to my 100 gallon when it has grown enough.
I was wondering if they are a slow growing species.
many thanks

nolan

It is slow growing fish but should be achieved by
increasing water-change frequency. It is not very important
how much water you change but how often may be a key.
Even 1/10 of frequent water change can achieve growth.
It seems they like new water. Be careful with large
amount of water change at once.

Good luck!

H.N's advice is good.

Also, keeping the fish in a bigger tank will actually help, as these fishes like to search for food at all times, and a bigger tank has two advantages:
1. It has (on average) cleaner water [because bigger tanks have bigger capacity of taking "dirt"].
2. It is more likely that these grazing fish will find something useful to eat.

As an example, I put a few bristlenose babies in my 400 L(~100 US Gal.), and they are by far the biggest ones I've got now, despite them being smaller than the ones I'd previously given to my father-in-law to keep in his 125 L (~40 US Gal.), and they in turn were bigger than the ones in my grow-out tank.

As long as there's no fish in your 100g tank that would eat a 2.5" pleco, put it in the big tank now...

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Mats

i cant put him in the 100 gallon at the moment as the fish in there probably will eat him so i have to wait until hes a bit bigger, but i might step up the water changes to 10% once a week and see if get any result. im doing 30% every 2-3 at the moment as the tank is quite lightly stocked.
thanks for the advice

What's your nitrate levels in the tank?

Doing 30-40% every week is quite feasible [assuming you've got the time], it won't harm the fish.

However, if nitrate levels are really low ( < 10 ppm) at the end of a water change period, this won't do much good, as the fish is most likely not limited by the nitrate levels. If nitrate is more than 20-25, growth will start to slow down.

Another factor to consider is the dissolved oxygen levels. If the water is rich in oxygen, the fish will grow quicker... If you haven't got some extra water movement besides the filter system, I'd recommend adding either a big airstone or a powerhead type pump. Both of these cause the water to move around more, which gives you better oxygenation of the water.

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Mats