Is it true that if you keep crocodiles, alligator gars and other big fish in a small tank they stay small?
by Aquaboy on Monday, March 8th, 2010 | 3 Comments
When I asked the guy in the pet shop he told me that they will not grow large if they are kept in a small aquarium. (I dint mean so small that they will die.)
Find another pet shop!
If a large fish is kept in a small tank, water quality is likely to go bad quickly as most large fish are very messy. This bad water quality and small surroundings will stunt the fish and then it will die from stress and other problems brought on by the bad environment. Tank size DOES NOT stunt fish – bad water quality does.
If you some how miraculously managed to keep water quality excellent, the fish will continue to grow until it can no longer turn around. Of course then you’d have a very frustrated and stressed fish – and a stressed fish has a low immune system and thus it, again, will die.
So the guy in the pet shop was talking out of his butt.
It definetly slows their growth…. I actually have a friend who has crocodiles in tanks and they literally grew the size of the tank nose to tip and they couldn’t even turn around or move at all. It was sad. They didn’t want it to be that way but they couldn’t find an animal sanctuary that would take them and they didn’t want to just release them somewhere that could be dangerous for ppl. DONT buy a pet that grows too large for your capabilities because eventually they will get full grown and you won’t be able to properly take care of them.
Find another pet store!!! It is downright disgusting that someone who is supposed to help fishkeepers would tell such a horrible lie. While I understand that not all pet store workers can be experts on every pet known to man, there is still some basic knowledge that they should have. One of the simplest concepts of fishkeeping is that you MUST house fish in a tank that is appropriate for their size. Keeping fish in undersized tanks WILL lead to numerous health problems, particularly stunted growth which causes many problems on it’s own, and WILL lead to an early death. This is not expert knowledge–it’s common sense, and if a pet store can not even train their workers to know the most basic of care requirements, you simply can not rely on them for anything. Unfortunately, pet stores are full of people like this, which is why you HAVE to do your own research far in advance of getting any pet.