Marine Fish Growth Chart

[eatsomepopcorn]

Is anyone familiar with where I could find a growth guide for marine fish so that I can understand how many inches of growth I can expect over the life of the fish. I am researching Clown Trigger, Dogface Puffer, Niger Trigger, Sargassum Trigger, and Picasso Trigger.

 

[joy13]

This site is what I use to find out info about the fish I am thinking about getting so far it is pretty accurate Saltwater Aquarium Fish for Marine Aquariums: Arothron Dog Face Puffer

 

[cmor1701d]

Yep, most of the site that sell fish have a info on habitat, diet and size.

LiveAquaria seems to be pretty accurate. I also use "A PocketExpert Guide to Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species"

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

I have the book, but it does not tell you how they grow over what period of time, just adult size. I am trying to figure out how long it takes to get to adult size.

 

[CaptainAhab]

IMO it's not ideal to stock your tank with the intentions of upgrading before they hit maturity. It's not always the adult size that determines the minimum tank requirements. Swimming style, hiding places, other mates, amount of LR to graze on etc are some of the contributing factors. Not to that mention growth rate is dependent on several factors. No book is going to be able to tell you how fast a juvvie tang grows year over year, month over month. Which is why that trigger and puffer aren't ideal for your setup.

 

[thincat]

The captain is correct your 44g Pentagon is way to small. you will stress them out totally.

 

[melosu58]

The captain is right as usual.

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

I think someone read a bit too much into my original question. The new fish that I made mention of are not currently, nor will they ever, be in my 44g. I am setting up either a 180g or a 300g and I am looking at stocking it with fish like what I mentioned. I suspect that someone can provide an opinion on how long it may take fish on average to reach their adult size and maybe a growth chart like they have for kids that give you an idea of how much growth one can expect, generally speaking, per year. If it does not exist, maybe I will do some research and develop it.

 

[joy13]

You will find reaching maximum size for fish will vary with temperature, food and water quality with in the same species of fish.

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

Thanks, but I am looking for some sort of average. I understand it will vary and it depends and so on. That should not prevent an educated guess with some caveats by someone who may have some experience or ran across a growth guide.

 

[CaptainAhab]

I wasn't referring to the fish you mention, I was referring to the fish listed in your "My Tanks" section... To clarify..

Regarding what you are looking for.. I think you'll probably be authoring it.

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

Ok, I will do a bit of research and see what sort of general rules of thumb I can dig up world-wide on the subject and post my results at a later date.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I think what many folks are trying to say is that even if you find a "average" rule of thumb, it really doesn't help you. Stocking should be done based on the full grown size of the fish - just because the fish is small doesn't mean it doesn't need less than "minimum tank size".

Equating this to a children's growth chart that you get at the doctor's office is actually a good analogy. The thing with those growth charts is that unless your child is in the 50% percentile range... it really doesn't help you know anything. You may have a child (or fish!) that's in the 10% range or the 99.9% range, but you don't know that until after it's happened. And just because they're in that range now, doesn't mean they'll continue to be in that range. In the end, when they're done growing... they're done growing - and that's when you'll know how tall/big they'll be! Really no different than fish.

 

[eatsomepopcorn]

Do we have metrics around the average time each type of fish stops growing or reaches full adulthood. I would like to know if a clownfish will grow for 5 years or 3 or 7. Same for dogface puffer.

 

[SHARPiE]

If you do find some info on this eatsomepopcorn - let us know!

It's almost like finding out how long a piece of string is

 

[jcarlilesiu]

I personally think that this is very good info.

With the cost difference between fish of varying sizes, my intentions are to by juvies for my tank with intention that they are cheaper than full grown... which is what I really want.

However, how long does that take for them to reach the mature size. I suppose that is the question of the OP and has nothing to do with stocking or anything else.

 

[austinsdad]

Growth rates depend on a lot IMO. Tank size, food amount and type has everything to do with it IMO. I've heard of and seen monster growth rates in the same fish that doesn't grow much over years where food and tank sizes prolly dictated everything.