To candycat: Do they look healthy?

[Lady G]

In another post about Bala,s redbelly and I kinda went back and forth on tanks size and growth of bala,s you had said if there were any ?s to start a new post or PM you, well I couldn't attach pics with the pm so I thought I'd start a new thread. Anyway I am pretty sure the are healthy but since you seem to know more about bala's I was wondering if you could look and tell if they are or if you can see any long term damage or anything to them from being in such a small tank? If you need I can try to get better pics.
BTW I have had them for about 4 months now and they were just wee babies when I got them (close to an inch long I would say).

Thanks in advance, also any comments from anyone else are welcome,

Gin

 

[Candycat21]

Hi Gin,

Your Bala's look pretty healthy to me. I honestly don't see anything wrong with them at the moment. What do you feed them by the way? Not sure if you already do this, but you might want to give them a variety of foods and just mix it up every few days or so. I give mine the basic flake diet(tried pellets but they won't touch them ) once a day, but every couple of days I give them frozen bloodworms, brineshrimp and mosquito larvae. I also throw in shrimp pellets and algea wafers for the other fish, but the balas love them as well! :thm:
Once you get them into a 55, you should see them gain some size. I would suggest however (if you have the money and space to do it) to invest in a larger tank as they will grow too large for the 55 and they do need plenty of swimming space as they get bigger :dance2:
I'm just glad you upgraded them from the 30
As far as their growth being stunted, it doesn't look like they've really suffered, although you really cant tell by just looking at them. Generally if you keep up with your tank maintenance and feed them a variety of different foods their growth shouldn't be affected. This pretty much goes for all fish as well, not just the Bala Sharks. How big are your Balas now?
Could you get a more close up picture of the balas? I know it's tough to get them to stay in one spot LoL

 

[Lady G]

more pics

Ok I tried to get some better pics (wish I had a better camera).
To answer your feeding question, I do feed them a few different things, flake food, sun dried baby shrimp and freeze-dried blood worms. I have tubi-flex worms too (the squares) but I don't use them often...it just seems like so much food and with the maintenince I already have I try to feed in as small amounts as poss. for now.
I had been doing about 30% (give/take a little) water changes every 2 days for quite a while almost as long as I've had them, once I found out how overstocked I was, and got some liquid test kits, it was the only way to keep the readings good.
I will eventually upgrade again, but for now the 55 was as big as I could go...I'm sorry to say it will be a while before I can upgrade again. This may be selfish but I am going to be working on making my 30 into a dwarf cichlid tank next. I think I might just to keep the bio-load down a bit for the bala's keep the gourami's in the 30, if they can be with the cichlids I end up getting.
Oh yeah my bala's are about 3" one is maybe a touch bigger than 3" now.

Thanks so much for helping me out here,

Gin

 

[Candycat21]

Well, I can't see anything visibly wrong with the fish. They all look really good! :thm: Start feeding some frozen foods instead of the freeze-dried as the frozen is a lot more nutritious and will help to add some size on your fish and keep them healthy. Just about all fish go nuts when you feed frozen foods LoL Bloodworms and brineshrimp are the most popular to feed, but your LFS should have a good variety to choose from as well.

 

[Lady G]

The only place around me is Wal-Mart, I order most of my fish stuff online but I have seen LOTS of sites with frozen food for sale. When I order next I will add some frozen food to the order.

Thanks,

Gin