Why Do My Fish Get Smaller

[uniquein2010]

Greetings all. My husband and I were having a discussion and need your help.

Why do our fishes appear to get smaller after they have been in our
tank for awhile? For example we were given a pleco that was about six inches in size. We placed it in our 60 gallon tank. He now appears to be only about 4 inches long now. We have had him for about 3 months now.

We also purchased a beautiful vermusa. (No sure if that's the correct spelling. He was about 6 inches. After being in our tank we noticed he was getting smaller.

Has anyone else encountered this? I look forward to hearing your reply.

 

[Jason7894561230]

I tihnk it may be the fact that its in a bigger tank that it looks smaller. For example a Fighting fish in a 5gal would look quite large but once it has been put into a 10gal. It may seem funny but our eyes do that.

 

[BigJim]

I suppose it's possible that your LFS could have tanks that magnify the fish a bit. I really doubt that the fish are shrinking. It could just be a perspective thing, like Jason said.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

I'm not even sure them getting smaller is biologically possible!