# Feeding and size question for Uaru



## Al'Thor (Mar 11, 2006)

Everything I seem to be able to find on Uaru says they are fast growing. But mine has only grown to about 5in. in about 10 months. He's active and seems to eat all right, but he only seems to grow about as fast as my Dempsey. Is this normal? Which leads me to question two. I've been feeding him a mix of romaine lettuce, spinach, Hikari Bio-Gold+ pellets, bits of shrimp, and the occasional mealworm. Is there something better I could be feeding him to give him a healthier diet? He's in a 180gal tank with a 50gal sump(30gal of water.) His tankmates are a pretty docile Oscar, a Dempsey, a female Convict, and five Silver Dollars. There are no signs of fighting between any of the fish. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## Al'Thor (Mar 11, 2006)

Bump. Anyone?


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## sicetnon (Jan 24, 2008)

hi mate.
I think temperature plays an importart role for amazon cichlids like Uaru.
I would put temp on 80-82 F.

Is your tank planted? do they eat any kind of plants?
I ask this cause I would add Uaru too


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## joey020283 (Jul 15, 2007)

I had the same question as a while ago, i also have read that they are fast growers. I had 3 uaru in a 135 gal tank with 6 gold severums (5 of them were male) I got my uaru a when they were around 1.5 inches. After spending 7 months in the tank with the severums, my largest uaru was only 4 inches at the most. I ended up removing all the severums, raised the tank temp to 28c from 26c.They were on a diet of Hikari cichlid gold, romaine lettuce and freeze dried blood worm, but now i feed Hikari Excel, Hikari discus bio-gold, romaine lettuce and froozen blood worm. Now my largest uaru is a solid six inches and still growing. I only removed the severums 2 months ago, and changed there diet at the same time and got a little more than 2 inches of growth in that short time. so now my uaru are 9 months old and i would say that i got them to this size by first making them more comfortable in the tank by removing all the severums, raising the tank temp and changing there diet. Im not sure which one did it but they have grown alot in the last 2 months.


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## 2fnlo (Jan 21, 2008)

I have 2 Uaru who were about 1.5 inches when I got them. I give them a steady diet of Freeze Dried Bloodworms, Frozen Bloodworms, Freeze Dried Tubafex Worms, Tetra Color, Hiraki Cichlid Staple Gold/Excel, and NLS. Sometimes I supplement with Algea Wafers because it seems like exercise to them, but I prefer to keep my tank well planted and let them feast on the real deal.

In 10 months 1 of the Uaru is about 3 inches and the other is about 5. Definitely the 5inch is dominant at feeding time which would show this extra growth.

My tank is only an 80 gallons, which is sadly just a hair too small, and I also keep the Temperature at 80 - 82 F. So far they seem very happy.


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## Al'Thor (Mar 11, 2006)

Thanks for the confirmation guys. I was starting to think I had the slowest growing Uaru around. It seems that this is fairly normal. I may try raising the temp a little, and I've been wanting to get rid of the Silver Dollars. Quite often when the Uaru goes up to take a pellet, one of the SD's will come and take it in one of their splash attacks. This will usually send the Uaru back down for a minute until he tries again. Perhaps a combo of temp and reduced stocking will help.


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