striped raphael catfish growth rate?

[raphie]

hi everyone,so i bought my striped raphael two years ago at 5cm or 2 inch and now it has only grown to 10.5cm or 4 inches, does this sound ok or not ?I do have her in a 50 gallon tank that is 45cm wide by 45 cm tall by 120 long i feed the tank everyday in the morning and evening , its tank mates are four yellow labs and 4 bronze corys.
Regards

[Bas Pels]

It does feel like they grow more slowly than they should.

I went into my notes, and found that 2 Platydoras I got @ 7 cm had grown to 9 cm in 3 months. Still, this does not say much: if mine were starved for a while, without growing, this rather rapid growth could be the result of repairing the growth-backlog.

Without any real evidence, I've grown to assume/believe that the growth of a fish is somew programmed, as in "I am 5 months old, I should measure 5 cm now; I am only 4, so I need to speed up growing a bit - I should be feeding more." But as said - I can't proove this to be correct.

[raphie]

ok , so do I need to feed her more? And what size should she be at her age?@Bas Pels

[Bas Pels]

Hard to say, as I don't know how old your fish was when you got her.

I'd just feed her more - try feeding after the lights are off, that might help a lot. Platydoras do get really old, I got mine now more than 28 years, so they don't grow very fast

[raphie]

@Bas Pels, ok cool do you think moving her to a smaller tank to teach her to come out at feeding time?

[Bas Pels]

No. You might want to remouve the Cories though. 120 cm is small enough for them

[raphie]

ok cool thanks a lot , are the cories to active for them? and should i maybe try to get another raphael?

[Bas Pels]

The Cories are much more day active. Therefore the Cories might have swept the sand clean before the Platydoras starts.

Platydoras are social, but your tank is not large enough for 2 adults of 20 cm

[raphie]

ok I will see what I can do , how big of a tank would two need? And how could one tell the difference between armulatus and costatus, because my little catfish doesn't have blueish eyes (which i see in almost all striped raphaels on the internet) they are black, so i was wondering if it could be the costatus?

[Bas Pels]

I kept mine in a 130 * 60 * 60 tank, for a while, but it did not feel right. 150 * 50 cm footprint would be my minimum.

Mine 2 have 4 * 1 meters.

@ armatulus / castatus I can't help you any further. Sorry

[raphie]

ok thank you very much for your help @ Bas Pels