I have raised 3 angels from babies. They are about 1 year old now. Two of them have reached 4" (not including fins) but one of them is less than half the size and hasn't grown in about 6 months. He also is quite shy compared to the others (little pigs always begging for food). The large angels fight amongst eachother, maybe a nibble here and there, nothing serious, but always leave the small one alone. I feed all my fish a mixture of flake, frozen and live food (they don't like freeze dried). Considering he isn't stressed, gets a wide variety of food, has good water quality and a large enough tank, why isn't he growing??
Angel Health Problems
- Thread starter amanda_
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QTOFFER
Aquarium Advice Addict
There are a couple of possible reasons that your angel isn't growing. The most common is simple genetics. Stunting is a common genetic ailment seen in captive-bred FW fish due to inbreeding. In addition to smaller size, the affected fish usually has a reduced lifespan compared with its most robust relatives. Other than that, stunted fish seem to live normal lives.
Intestinal parasites can cause stunting too - fortunately it's uncommon. You have already mentioned some other reasons for poor growth: aggression during feeding time, poor diet, and poor water quality. Since it appears that your fish suffer from none of these problems, I would blame your slow-grower on genetics and breeding.
Your experience with angelfish somewhat parallels mine. I started with 5 bottlecap-sized juveniles. Within six months, two died for no apparent reason. The three remaining fish are still going strong after two years, but one is noticeably smaller than the other two. I've also been fortunate regarding aggression - just a few bumps and posturing between the two bigger fish - nothing serious. My big pair also leave their smaller tankmate alone. And yes, they ARE greedy pigs at feeding time!
Intestinal parasites can cause stunting too - fortunately it's uncommon. You have already mentioned some other reasons for poor growth: aggression during feeding time, poor diet, and poor water quality. Since it appears that your fish suffer from none of these problems, I would blame your slow-grower on genetics and breeding.
Your experience with angelfish somewhat parallels mine. I started with 5 bottlecap-sized juveniles. Within six months, two died for no apparent reason. The three remaining fish are still going strong after two years, but one is noticeably smaller than the other two. I've also been fortunate regarding aggression - just a few bumps and posturing between the two bigger fish - nothing serious. My big pair also leave their smaller tankmate alone. And yes, they ARE greedy pigs at feeding time!
Jason the Lost
Aquarium Advice Activist
I also have a similar experience...I bought 5 small ones, since I figured with my bad luck with angles I had better odds this way, every one from the batch survived. One I gave away a year ago, they're going on two years this summer. One of them is smaller than all the others, but they all seem content, so no worries.
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