Water Changes

[MitchM]

I've heard mention of a growth limiting pheremone before, but I've never come across a study that identifies it.
I can see overall stress restricting fish health and subsequently fish growth, but that's it.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I've heard mention of a growth limiting pheremone before, but I've never come across a study that identifies it.
I can see overall stress restricting fish health and subsequently fish growth, but that's it.

I don't know about "growth limiting" pheromones, but mating (sex) pheromones are real enough and high concentrations can lead to a lot of stress for fish, especially females which can be chased to exhaustion and even death. Flushing out those pheromones with water changes during the mating season can help alleviate some of that stress.

 

[crsublette]

In a previous post here someone mentioned about phosphates in tap water potentially contributing to algae growth... In process of organizing my digital library, I came across the below article by Skeptical Aquarist.

Definitely something to think about if you are using municipal water for water changes.


http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/phosphate-cycle

Quote from above article :

"Tapwater polyphosphates. It's not so easy to eliminate the phosphates that enter your system in your tapwater. Long-chain polyphosphates are often added to the public water supply, both for protecting water mains from corrosion and carbonate scale and also for some softening effect, when the PO4 renders calcium or magnesium ions inactive by sequestering them. These chain forms of PO4 are orthophosphates, which are available for plant and algal uptake. Protecting these useful added phosphates is the reason it's illegal to dump ferric chloride FeCl (see below) in your drain."

 

[MitchM]

Nice link Charles.