How Big Can the Ten-Spot Fish Grow? An Introduction to the Adult Fish's Size

The ten-spot fish can grow to about 30cm. While keeping them, you can also house a group of other fish over 30cm together with them. For example, red arowana, silver arowana, and so on; arowanas can suppress the ten-spot fish.

Introduction to the ten-spot fish

1. The African ten-spot fish is not noticeably aggressive when young, but as it grows, by maturity its aggression is already quite strong, especially between male fish, which always have to fight to see who is superior. In a small tank, one “king” emerges; in a large tank, there may be several “kings”, and non-king males are unable to breed. It seems fighting is this fish's nature. To avoid “civil war”, there are two methods: first, once the fish reach a body length of 12 cm, keep only 1 “king” male and 2~3 females in a medium tank, and in a large tank keep only 1~2 “king” males with a body length over 15 cm. This can avoid “brutal battles” between males, but males also attack females that have not yet spawned, whereas in nature males always yield and simply avoid them.

2. If the tank is large, breeding the African ten-spot fish is not difficult. If the tank is small, the paired fish should temporarily be isolated. Another method is to keep fish of nearly equal size at fairly high density, but this carries risk. Is there any difference between female and male African ten-spot fish in terms of appearance? Among young African ten-spot fish, males and females are almost indistinguishable; the only difference is that males have a larger appetite and grow faster. At sexual maturity (about one year to mature), the female is still black and white, while the male's white parts turn orange-yellow and appear more beautiful, but in non-“king” males the orange-yellow is not very noticeable. Males with a body length of about 20 cm and females with a body length of about 16 cm can breed. A strong male, shortly after pairing with one female and spawning, will pair with another female.