Fry and growth rate

Providing your fry with energy, i.e. feeding them, is not the only thing you can do to promote a healthy growth rate. According observations made by aquarists, limiting the amount of energy that is “wasted” by your fry seem to be almost as important as giving them energy in the first place. We already know that a high water quality, ideal water parameters and a disease free environment is important if we want the fry to grow, but what about energy conservation?

Water movements
Since supreme water quality and high levels of oxygen are imperative for the fry of many popular aquarium species, it is tempting to equip the fry aquarium with vigorous filtration and powerful aeration. What we sometimes forget to take into account is that in an aquarium with vigorous water movements, the fry will consume much more energy than in a calm aquarium. Energy that could otherwise have been used for growth will be “wasted” on swimming. Frequent water changes are therefore better than strong mechanical filters that will produce a lot of current in the water if you want your fry to grow big within a reasonable amount of time.

Scouting a huge aquarium
Most aquarists know that raising fry in tiny containers can be detrimental since it is hard to keep the water quality up in a miniscule jar, and crowded living quarters can also lead to stunted growth and unnecessary aggression. Tossing your fry into a huge aquarium can however also prove disadvantageous, since the fry may be forced to spend a lot of energy swimming around in the huge aquarium looking for food.

The exact amount of energy spent searching for food will naturally vary from occasion to occasion. If you have small fry that feed on infusoria that they can find around a live plant, the exact size of the aquarium will not really be important because the fry can stay near the plant 24/7 and never have to embark on any long journeys to find food. If you on the other feed your fry crushed fry food that will float on the surface and spread out to all corners of the aquarium, the fry will need to swim from one end of the aquarium to the other to eat all the food. This will naturally be pretty tiring for them in a huge aquarium and they will be forced to spend a lot of energy swimming that could have been used for growth.

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