Hormone levels in the water

[razE]

Hi guys,

My nitrates in my 300gal are staying super low so I'm wondering how often I need to change the water to remove the hormones that will slow down the growth of my Dovii?

Some pictures of Bruce for fun

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

Beautiful Dovii! If he is the only fish in the tank, I would say once a week. If you have more fish than him, then twice or more a week.

 

[duanes]

I agree,
Because we really don't have a way to access to directly measuring growth inhibiting hormones, all we can do is use nitrate as an indicator.
But even though nitrates are low, just to be on the safe side, the above stated water changes are very reasonable.
Consider that in natural waters where these cichlids are found, nitrates are undetectable.
Looks like you are doing a great job with it.

 

[RedRaven]

Stunning fish so much so it looks a little off

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

I love the colorful pattern on its face, I've never seen a juvi that pretty.

 

[razE]

Stunning fish so much so it looks a little off

Haha you're not the first one to say that. So those three photos have absolutely no editing done and is a perfect representation of what I see with my eye. So, I'm curious about what you think looks off?

I had one person suggest that he may have been crossed with a Jaguar Cichlid because of the pattern on his head. I googled Dovii, went to the image section and I saw two different types of patterns. Some with basically just dots and some with his pattern. Either way, I won the lottery with him and is a funny story on I brought him.

I messaged the seller who turned out to be a kid around 10 years old on a general sale site, called Gumtree. He had the wee lad up for sale for $50. He replied and said someone was coming to look at him tomorrow. At the time, there was no other Dovii's available so I said to him, I'll give you $100 if I can pick him up tonight. He replied, well, if you're going to pay that much, I'll tell the other guy I decided to give him to a friend .

Thanks guys, I'll work on weekly water changes. What percentage of water do you think, given it is a large volume of water overall?

 

[12 Volt Man]

I would try to do 1/3 weekly. thats pretty standard and it should be fine. if he is eating well he will grow and grow. How large is he now?

 

[razE]

I would try to do 1/3 weekly. thats pretty standard and it should be fine. if he is eating well he will grow and grow. How large is he now?

Bruce is about 9 inches or 230mm. I feed him New Life Spectrum Float pellets

Okay will drop a third out later today, thanks guys

 

[koltsixx]

I agree with what has already been said about water changes. I had to comment though because I also wanted to say that's a beautiful Dovii. I'm no expert but the facial pattern looks very unique. Good luck with him and I hope to see updates as he grows.