# Stunted for good?



## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

A long while back I went on vacation and left my peacocks all alone for about 3 days. I know, it's awful that I left them without food for 3 days, but last time I asked someone to feed them while I was gone I had catastrophic results. 

Anyways, I left my peacocks for 3 days and upon returning the smallest fish in the aquarium had been picked on. A lot. He was one of the fish that hadn't really colored up at all yet because he (maybe she) was still too small. His (I'll call it a "he") fins were nipped all the way down until there was pretty much nothing left. I'm assuming the other fish got hungry and took advantage of him. I figured he was a goner, but decided to leave him in there anyways. A few months have passed and his fins have grown back. He still just kind of hides in the rocks all day, but when the lights go out he comes out. He's still really small and hasn't really colored up at all except for maybe a hint of yellow.

So, my question is, has his growth been stunted? Will he ever grow bigger or color up? Was this event too traumatic for the poor little guy? I'm going to be taking all the females, that I accidently picked up as juveniles, back to the store soon and am wondering if I should go ahead and take him back as well.

Thanks!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Often the "runt" fish will end up staying small because the other fish pick on it and it gets less to eat, so it doesn't grow as fast so it gets picked on etc. If you were to take that fish and put it in a largish tank alone and keep the water clean, it would likely grow and color up. In the tank will bigger siblings, it will continue to have trouble keeping up.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

emc: If he were to put him in a bigger tank to "grow out" would he then be able to reintegrate into the main tank once his size was up?


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## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

Obsidian said:


> emc: If he were to put him in a bigger tank to "grow out" would he then be able to reintegrate into the main tank once his size was up?


Good question. I'd like to know the answer to this one as well.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

leaving you fish without for for a few days or even a week or so is no big deal.they will be fine...so you didn't cause any problems there..
if you pull the runt and put him in a good size tank where noone will bother him he will start growing again...once he is up to size ; you can put him bat in the other tank..he should be just fine....


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## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

I've got an empty 30 gallon right now. So just setting him in there all alone will be fine?


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

Superfly, how many peacocks are in your main tank and how big is the tank? With enough fish in a large enough tank it is unusual for any one fish to be picked on. I'm guessing the you have only a few peacocks. 3-4 maybe??? If thats the case, you may solve you problem just by adding some more fish.


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## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

When this happened there were about 4-5, I believe. There are now 8 (soon to be 7, since one is a female) in there and he doesn't get picked on nearly as much, but they still chase him if he comes out into the open and he doesn't get nearly as much food as the others. He's probably close to 1 1/2 inches while the others that were purchased at the same time are close to 3-4 inches and are much more colorful. I've set up a 10 gallon for him and I'm going to be attempting to nurse him back to a competitive size. Maybe his colors will come out as well.


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