Loaches Online Forum

I actually have another example of this.... Hope this helps, Yes it does. That is the sort of thing I wanted to hear. Thanks for that Emma. That would all be more convincing to the LFS. As for studies about this, I think some were done by the aquaculture industry when researching caged culture tech...

These were the clowns in that little 40g (and believe me, I didn't realize how little it was until I put the following fish in it: 2 8" very muscly (is that a word?) clowns 2 6" clowns 2 2-3" clowns there were other fish in there too, but it was quite lightly stocked in my opinion. I had been movin...

Are these symptoms witnessed in nature, and under what conditions? Clearly they are and if you read that article I posted you'll already know under what conditions. No, I don't think you're correct here. The stunting talked about in that paper is neither cruel, nor detrimental to the species studie...

Do you need evidence of global warming too? Yes I do. But we already have that. IIRC, what isn't known is how much of the effects are caused by humans, and how much is due to a natural cycle. :) Well many of the questions I asked in my previous post are pointed towards Emma who - and I'm assuming h...

Yes. I'm very sorry for my "outburst". I'm getting a little too emotional over this. And thanks Emma. I have been waiting for you to make some comments. Ok, so the symptoms of stunting are correct. Then does that mean if none of those symptoms ever show up, the fish has not been stunted during its l...

I just cannot believe that, from a site such as this one, after a few days no one can show some evidence for the proof of stunting in juvenile clowns. This is so unscientific that it borders on "urban legend". There is no way you people are going to change the minds of fish shop owners unless you ca...

I knew nothing about clowns. I never bought them straight away, but spoke to the LFS people who almost convinced me they'd be fine in my tank. A quick google found all those pages that say a 20 gal or larger is required. It wasn't until the fish were in the tank that I stumbled onto sites like this ...

Thanks chefkeith. I should of remembered that poster. I doubt they'll take any notice, but I'll give it a go.

There's some good points being brought up, especially about taking fish back to stores to have them suffer even more. And yes, researching purchases is obviously a good thing. Sometimes you just get it wrong at the wrong time though, especially less experience people like myself. As for my clowns, s...

chefkeith, that's a cool setup. what are the dimensions of the bridges? Like cross-section area?

How about goldfish. Everybody has heard of them I hope. They are greatly stunted when they are held captive in fish bowls. Because they're cramped. And produce a lot of waste. An interesting experiment would be to have two tanks connected to the same filtration system. One a small 20-30 gal tank an...

One of the resources discussed in the article is crowding and space which certainly does apply to the case of an aquarium. Yes, as pertaining to intraspecific competition. In an aquarium they are not competing for food because there is plenty. AFAIK clowns like to be in groups, so they are not comp...

Looks like I have the full article too. Thanks for that shari. After skimming the article, it seems to suggest the main factor in stunting of fish is competition for resources, ie food. However, this is for natural ecosystems. In an aquarium, usually food is not limited, so this study doesn't really...

but what is phisically constraining their growth? If its a simple matter of stressed environment due to lack of space, why doesn't this happen to all fish? Yes. This is what I need evidence of. Still no one has given any. Oscars will grow no matter what. So will Murray Cod and many other Australian...

I did a search of this forum and found a couple of posts describing symptoms of stunting, such as this one . But does anyone have any specific references to the problems and causes of stunting? For instance, a 29gal tank is too small for clowns. But at what point, age, size etc does the fish start g...