How fast will my fancies grow?

[Brhino]

I have two veiltails in a 29 gallon community tank. Right now I'd estimate they have a body length of 2-3" (which we're on the subject, anyone have a good method of estimating the length of your fish?). I understand they will grow larger and produce more waste, and I'll need a bigger tank. That's fine, I'm looking forward to it. My question is what the timeframe will be like. How big will they be in a year? How long will it take them to get to the 6-8" that they may someday reach?

Also, I assume that when talking about fish length, we're actually talking about body length (especially with species like fancies and guppies that can have tails as long as the rest of the fish). Is that correct?

[annageckos]

Body length can be around a foot on common goldies. Fancies will variy in length, from 4 - upto 9 inches in body length. How long they take to grow will depend on size of tank, food, genetics and water quality. A healthy goldy will grow quickly. The important thing to do is keep up on water changes and have good filtation. If a fish is kept in too small of a tank or in bad water conditions it can be stunted. As for measuring your fish you can get a cloth tape measure and tape it along the bottom of the tank. Then when the fish swim by you can get a good idea how big it is. I just eye it and am pretty good, but I have been doing it for a long time and have had lots of pratice.

[VoidParadigm]

It's dependant on a number of things, as Anna said.

Are they in a true 29 gallon community? (ie. more fish than just the goldfish.)
If this is the case then their growing will be slower, and they could even become stunted if there are a lot of community fish.

If it's just the two of them in there, though, they should be full size within a maximum of five years, preferably two or three, and when you're lucky just one. You can't really tell with Fancies due to the number of different strains and often inbreeding.

[xasuma]

I put a measuring string next to the glass, and when they swim by i see how big they are.
And to get 6-8'' from now, it make take like 2 years in average conditions.
But i cant really tell for sure, because you have to consider all the factors they mentioned before.