How do you know your fish are healthy?

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morleyz

This space for rent
Sep 26, 2002
375
0
0
Illinois
www.allaquatic.com
This may seem like an obvious one, but I was wondering what you all look for when you're determining if your fish are happy, healthy, and growing up properly. I normally look at eating, activity and color as my biggest signs.

The real reason I'm asking is I've recently started a 150G tank of africans. My stock is all very juvenile. I'm guessing that they're generally healthy as they eat well and are very active. I have no idea what color most of the juvi's are supposed to be. I also don't really know what the average growth rate should be. I know how big they'll get when mature, but no body really specified how long that'll take. So I guess more directly, if you were raising a "new" fish from very young, how would you know if you were on track for growth and health.
 

Sum-X

La Dee Da Dee Do
Sep 15, 2001
309
0
16
37
Newark, Ohio
www.designerscrypt.com
Real Name
Aaron
I usually check if they are: Swimming around a lot, very colorful, eats a lot, and is always searching the tank for a quick snack. ;)
 

Serrateeth_2002

Godzilla
Nov 3, 2002
346
1
0
35
Singapore
not breathing too fast,probably all you need to see if your fish is healthy or not.
 

morleyz

This space for rent
Sep 26, 2002
375
0
0
Illinois
www.allaquatic.com
Thanks for those suggestions, but what I'm really looking for is thing to guage the long run. I'm pretty good at looking and seeing, "hey, they look happy today". Here's an example, I have 7 aulonocara hansbaenschi. They're around 2-2.5" and they're all brown. About the most health information I have is that their diet should be plant based and they should start to show colors around 3.5-4". I have no idea if they're on track or not. How long would I expect that to take? I guess I wondering if anyone has some sort of method for keeping an eye on the big picture.

If you have kids, I'm looking for something analogous to those height, weight, and head-size charts your pediatrician loves to fill out.
 
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