Liposarcus pardalis growth rate

Elspeth · Post by **Elspeth** » 16 Apr 2004, 05:36

So, anyone remember Tess?

http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=5931

When I first got her, before I learned that she (gender arbitrarily assigned) was L. pardalis and not H. plecostomus as labelled in the store, she was about as long as my thumb from tip to joint. That was the first week in March. Tess has been taking advantage of the abundant cover we've provided and hasn't been seen much... tonight she booked around a little bit and suckered onto places where we could see her. She is AT LEAST twice as long as she was, maybe more, and nicely filled out!

Yep, I'm pleased and happy, of course! It all started with the idea of getting a common plec, you know. (Then I came here and becamse a social plec-keeper. Sure enough, I tried another... and another... and I'm looking at some rubbernoses in a lfs that doesn't usually have anything other than commons... aieee! I'm becoming a Plecoholic!) But I was wondering, what's the usual rate of growth? I thought someone had mentioned their being slow growers, but I can't find that again so maybe I was confused.

More generally, I'm just curious -- have others any experience with putting tiny fish in really big tanks, tanks sized for how big they'll eventually get? Tiny Tess is in a 120 gallon tank with other fish who will eventually need the space but are also quite small now (and in the case of the tiger barbs, are also getting bigger surprisingly quickly, but not as startlingly as Tess has done). I'm wondering if more-than-plenty-of-space might figure into the growth equation (along with good food and good water conditions). I'm pretty sure I've seen fish her size as giveaways out of smaller (10-20 gallon) tanks that were a few years old...

magnum4 · Post by **magnum4** » 16 Apr 2004, 20:51

IME, Under the best conditions i would say on average 2cm per month.

Elspeth · Post by **Elspeth** » 02 May 2004, 19:45

Here's why I asked... It took a while for Tess to come out to a good photo position at the same time that I had the camera ready!

Tess as a recent aquisition (March 8, 2004):

Tess, finally holding still for a photo on May 1, 2003:

That's the same person's hand in both photos. Seemed like a LOT of growth to me.

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DeLBoD · Post by **DeLBoD** » 02 May 2004, 22:31

I keep 3 L. pardalis of different sizes and would say thatâ??s a normal growth rate.
The largest of the 3 is about 10â?