How to stop a fish from growing

Posted by Sarah on July 14, 2009

No, I’m not really going to tell you how to stop a fish from growing, but this is one of the more disturbing topics that I saw in my stats, so I figured I’d cover it.

The short answer is you can’t stop a fish from growing, although if a fish is in a poor environment, whether it’s too small, has water that isn’t changed often enough, or is crowded, it may become stunted, and not grow to it’s full size.

This isn’t something that a good fish keeper would want for their fish – you basically aren’t providing the proper care for the fish, so it isn’t growing properly.

The only reasons that I can think of to stop a fish from growing are to keep it looking “cute” and to keep it small enough that it will be able to remain in an aquarium that is too small for it for longer than it should be in that tank.

Since the original searcher was searching for ways to keep a puffer from growing, there is the possibility that they could be trying to keep them small enough so that they wouldn’t want to eat their tank mates.

None of these is a good reason to abuse your fish, and I think that doing anything that hurts your fish and doesn’t let them grow properly, on purpose, is fish abuse.

Of course, this is one of the reasons that you should research your fish, and have a proper habitat for them before you buy them.

I know it’s hard, and I don’t always do it – but I’ve done enough research so that I have a general idea of what requirements the fish will need, and I know which people at the fish store to talk to if I have questions.

A lot of people do buy a bigger fish than their tank can handle, and plan to upgrade to a bigger tank when their fish needs it.

Unfortunately life can get in the way, so people can’t always get the upgraded tank when they need it.

That’s why it’s a good idea to plan – and buy in advance.

What are your thoughts on stopping fish from growing on purpose.

Do you think it’s ok, or is it fish abuse?

Are their any fish that you wish you could keep from growing?

It would be nice if I could press a button and stop some of the larger puffers from growing so that I could keep them in my aquariums, but I know it wouldn’t be healthy for them, so I’d never do that.