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How fast/slow do these guys grow?
How big would a year old Zebra Pleco be?

I've been getting various and conflicting responses...so I decided to post this topic.

Hi Ena!

Well if we are dealing with a fry, I would expect hime to be about 3-4 cm (1'.5-1'.75 ) after a year
Then the growing rate shall slow a bit, I would not expect him to grow more than 2-3 cm(1'- 1'.5) a year until they are sexually mature...then it will drop quite a lot to almost nothing, just a little each year

The big problem with these as with any other fish, it will mainly depend on the type of food given, the quantity they can eat, the water change done ( quantity and frequence).

If the speciemens are wild caught and semi adult to adult the only worrying point would be if they were fed well enough at the exportator, importator and the shop, how long did they stay at each place? the best being the fish staying as less time as possible at each place...

If bred fish, the thing to worry would be if the breeder insure good grow by giving them a good water quality, very often water changes, sufficient food
Cheers
Yann

yup those words are exectly correct.. good conditioning and alot of feeding would make them grow faster, but they tend to grow quite slow.. ;)

As stated previously, it depends hugely on the water and food. I presently have fry of two and a half months old that have easily outgrown fry of four months old, and the only difference is that the smaller ones are in the main tank (48x15x18), and the larger are in a small tank (10x8x8) inside the main one. This allows me to concentrate their feeding and make sure they are fed approx 3-4 times a day, whereas the fry in the main tank will have to search far more to get anywhere near as much food.
I also have one fish of two and a half months that is nearly 20mm already, but this growth rate I have never seen before, its nearly twice the size of the rest of the batch although it has segregated itself and seems very dominant even at this tender age .
Hope this was of some help.

Marc

another factor that will affect the growth rate of the fish is temp. the higher the temp. the faster there metabolic rate w/c increases food intake w/c brings us to the question of why the growth rate of my fry is much faster than the one shown in the 1996 Jan. issue of TFH mag. the temp of my tank is the same as the authors w/c is 85-86 F the difference I can think of is that my tank has a higher Ph w/c is around 7.8-8.2 and has a lot higher GH, what ever comes out of tap. The PH and The GH is another thing to consider to improve the groth rate.

a ten week old zebra fry can attain aprox. an inch in Total Length


and in 7 months would grow to 1.5-1.75 of an inch TL

shown are quarter dollar coin w/c is 1/16 smaller of an inch
link to the fish pix. http://eheim-uk.com/planetcatfish/galle ... ry/albun21