Stunted Goldfish

[Khalix]

I had a customer come in the other day with a fancy goldfish she's had for over a year who is barely the size of many of our smaller varieties that are much younger. She told me they'd had a 10 gallon aquarium and had 7 other goldfish in with it, including a very large comet. I have read about the hormone process in the water making some goldfish adjust eating habits and growth dependent on how crowded a tank is. My question is.. will she ever grow NOW? The lady said all her other fish died very recently because she'd done a thorough cleaning(doh!). She wanted to be rid of "it"(her words), so I brought her home and put her in my quarantine tank with plans to put her into my 50g.

I just worry she's suffered irreversible damage.

 

[Marconis]

7 fancy goldfish in a 10 gallon? Oh boy. I read a while ago on some other forum that some fish actually can continue to grow after being in an appropriate sized aquarium. I don't know the exact "mechanisms" behind it, but in my opinion I feel like a fish can in essence reach maturity regardless of their growth being stunted, so a large increase in size is unlikely. Take that with a grain of salt because I have never experienced this and that's only my opinion.

Allow the experts to chime in.

 

[Khalix]

For what it's worth she seems pretty healthy all things considered. Her eyes are not extremely large like a lot of people say they see in stunted fish typically. She is very active. I'm hoping she'll grow a little, but as long as she's healthy all is well. I see no signs of ich or anything of that nature, so I'm going to give her another week before I put her in with my current fantails. Thanks for the answer.

Seems there's no exact science to it, at least no searches have turned up anything concrete. Some people say their fish grow some, others say not at all. We'll see.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Unfortunately there is not much data on stunted fish. In most cases they will not get as large as they would have, sometimes nowhere near it. Technically cold-blooded animals never actually stop growing, it is just that the rate of growth can drop to effectively none. There is also the possibility of permanent damage that is not seen. Think of it as growing up in another country with poor nutrition, crowded conditions, etc. You could definitely be healthy again, but it probably wouldn't be the same as if you had grown up in healthier conditions. With so many issues that we don't fully understand I do not believe that many fish at all die of old age. Whether it is poor diet, water quality, etc. things will cause problems long term.

If it is healthy give it a good home so that it has a chance.