Megalodoras uranoscopus growth rate

[BullFishkeeping]

Hello,

I may have the opportunity to pick up some juvenile ~5"

Megalodoras uranoscopus

, and I currently have a 125g tank set up that they would go into. I do have some 6x6 stock tubs as well, and they'll eventually go into a South American biotope tank, likely with some Striped Raphaels, Loricariids, and a Hoplias microlepis. The 125g currently has a 7" Hoplias microlepis on the way, but he has been living with Platydoras sp. for awhile, and has been proven to be relatively nonaggressive.

My question is the growth rate of the megas. I have a 6" Striped Raphael Cat, who has maybe grown 0.5" in my 65g in the past 6 months. How quickly should I expect the Megas to hit 30"? Are they slow growers?

Thank you

[Viktor Jarikov]

I've been growing out 6 of them for a few years now and I have read lots of reports of others over the last decade. It can vary quite a bit but on average, I'd guesstimate they reach ~10", maybe 12", in the first year and slow down from there taking 2-4 years to grow another foot. I have never heard of one over 2' and even these appear to be exceedingly rare because there are so many posts of "Hey, check out my new irwini cat!" on various fish sites and I came across only one post about a two-footer or close to it, IIRC. 18"-20" can be seen sometimes.

All mine reached about 10" in the first year after which I rehomed them into a 4500 gal tank and have been having some problem getting them comfortable and feeding steady. After about 1.5 years in that 4500 gal one is ~18", one is ~15", the rest appear ~12"-13". The biggest one has been the boldest and feeding the most.