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Right then... I've sparked a bit of discussion on a different forum...

When Andy an I liberated my first spawn - we measured one as it hung about on the glass before dissareading into the plants...

Tip to tip the little zeb was bang on 20mm.... 16 days out of the egg.

The eggsack was gone (hence we let them out) but they had not been out and eating.

Is this normal or not?


I did notice the original size of the eggs was a lot bigger than I was expecting but thats comparing to ancistrus spawns.

The correct way of measuring any fish is the body length, exluding the tailfin in other words. Some fish might have a good developed tailfin, but it's the bodylength that's interesting really.

yeah that's how I measure mine. As discussed in the original discussion on the other forum. I would be incredibly surprised if 16 day old fry were 2cm SL, as opposed to 2cm TL.

Fish are measured both ways- body length and total length. In theory one is supposed to specify when it is TL. Most folks use TL in describing a fish's size while "professionals" use body length.

Everywhere, right from the begining it has been clearly stated; as it has here ; that I've used TL.



So - looking at TL so we can compare rather than bicker,
what are other peoples fry like size wise.

Just for referance - where to you stop measuring for SL?

measuring the fish including tail has no meaning in my opinion. In Zebras the tail can be anywhere from one third to almost half the fish's length when they are very young.

What if we start measuring lyretails including the tail....? I would feel ripped off if I was told the fish was 2cm, and I came to collect only to find that the seller had measured the whole fish and it turned out to be a month old

Normal lenght of a one month old freeswimming Zebra would be about 12mm in my opinion.

You stop measuring at the root of the tail.

But maybe I have dwarfs

Totally agree - but we're not discussing anything other than zebs on this one... Its been specific from the satrt.

next thing to be discussed would be metric vs imperial

I'll try and have a measure if I spot another on the glass...

So you stop "about" here??



If so then the tail body ratio is 1:3
So 20mm TL = approx 15mm SL

In my case.

It's about being consistent. One should always, no matter what species you talk about, measure the body. This way everybody knows what we're on about

I would say the tail starts at the black line:



And yes, metric vs imperial is always a problem to me I got MS Calculator plus just to convert measurements after starting talking to overseas aquarists

cheers

Just to be difficult, I would say its between the red and black lines

at least there is no argument where the fish starts and ends if you use TL

excellent discussion thread Russ

looking at your pic, I'd be more inclined to go with McEve with the black line..... it's the point that the body 'bulk' stops, and the tail starts....

apologies for causing any confusion on the other forum, but I did state it was from tip of the nose to tip of the tail from the start