I have an IBC system running, been running now for 14 months or so. Over time the gunk on the floor built up a bit making my fish hard to see, particularly with any murky water.
So, fo some unknown reason, for about a week now, which weirdly is since the last heavy rain, which normally CREATES murky water, my water has been crystal clear.
And I now have a puzzle...
I have SP's and catfish in there, and they seem to be going great. My SP's were 5cm fingerlings in Jan13 and are looking fit and active, although the 43ยบ+ days a month or so back killed quite a few of them before I got things under control again. My tandanus are also fit and active, and the largest is about 20cm long and maybe 4 - 5cm across the head.
Here's the puzzle... although there is some variation in size among both species, almost all of them are 15cm or more - except for one catfish which is about 8cm long - it doesn't seem to have grown since about 12 months ago. Seriously somewhere on here I reported on my fish sizes back about 2 months after I got them and the bigger ones were that size.
If I didn't have a lot of reading telling me neither species will breed in a tank I'd think the little one is a tandanus baby, the difference is so great.
How does a fish survive and not grow?
Do I have a midget fish?
How come the SP's haven't eaten the poor little bugger?