The Puffer Forum

how fast will these guys grow or whats their growth rate per month? and whens the point where they start to slow down a bit? this is considering that the fahaka and mbu are both about 3" and will be fed 2-3x a week.

thanks.

At 3" both those fish should be fed smaller meals about six days a week. That young and small, they are in their fastest growth phase. Feeding smaller meals more often will keep their growth steady and even.

Fahakas get to 16-18", T. mbu to just over two feet. Both are medium doubling time, meaning in part that they should reach sexual maturity between 1.4 and 4.4 years, so in ordinary conditions they sould be 50-60% (normal sexual maturity size) between those ages, and in good conditions close to the lower time figure. Some hobbyists report fahakas making full size faster than predicted from the field work to date. There is too little successful mbu keeping reported to generalize. Those figures are from hatching, not from 3" size, so the time frame in your hands would be shorter. IMHO and IME, both or either fish should be started in its final home - they really need the space.

HTH

Fahaka's grow approx an inch a month for their first year.

With MBU's it all depends on how much you feed them. a good example two MBU's same age and size one was fed 1 cockle or muscle a day and the other was fed 6 a day a year later one the one that was fed one was still aabout 7/8 inches nose to tail, the other was wll over a 1ft nose to tail and at least 4 times the size in body!!!!

That makes sense!

I think that when a poster asks, the assumption is normal feeding.

RTR wrote:I think that when a poster asks, the assumption is normal feeding.

yes

When feeding a mbu or fahaka...do you feed to satiation or give them a somewhat random amount per feeding to more accurately simulate what they'd find in nature?

I feed my ceylons and GSPs as much as they can eat (within reason) every other day or so.

They arent fat, they arent thin and they are growing if not at lightning fast speeds.

I was just curious how the larger species go for food quantities.

jason

Jason wrote:When feeding a mbu or fahaka...do you feed to satiation or give them a somewhat random amount per feeding to more accurately simulate what they'd find in nature?

I feed my ceylons and GSPs as much as they can eat (within reason) every other day or so.

They arent fat, they arent thin and they are growing if not at lightning fast speeds.

I was just curious how the larger species go for food quantities.

jason

what im goin to do if i get it this week or so, im just goin to feed it every other day or so as much as it can eat.

I saw the biggest Mbu I have ever seen in my life today, this thing was enormous. It was way to big to be in the tank it was in. It could barely turn around...this thing was about as big as a poodle...I couldn't believe it was so huge...it barely had any teeth though.