mort
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2015
- Messages
- 2,384
Hi, I was thinking about how long some fish can actually live for and whether most of us even consider this before buying them? I'm currently on the look out for a new feature fish and am thinking of a dozen + chain loaches and looked into how long they can live. I found the average seems to be 6-8 years which is what I would expect but know loaches can be very long lived if they receive a decent environment, I myself have clown loaches over 25 years and a botia striata that turned 22 this year (average life for those seems 6-8).
I know when I was in the industry I was never asked how long anything would live for unless it had already died, like do neons only live a year kind of thing, so i'm not sure people really plan ahead.
I lost a silver dollar a week ago that was 20, it was part of a trio I bought for 80p each when I was 12 and I still have the other 2, so 4p a year is a bit of a bargain. I still have a silver shark that's over 20 (£2.10), a synodontis ocellifer (splashed out at £11), an unknown syno that only had one eye (85p), The aforementioned clown loaches now 6 but were 11, the single stripe loach (3.10), an ancistris that's about 18 and a striped doradid that's 27 (£3.75).
I know these are bigger species so expected to live a long life and I've had many other fish that were 15+ before they passed but I've seen people have corydoras for over 20 years and I have pencil fish at the moment pushing 6-7 which is quite old for a tetra like species.
So does anyone else plan for how long they might have things? I know most people tend to change there scape and sometimes stocking (I change the décor from time to time but have my fish for life) but its surprising how long some of our friends might be with us. I fully expect the doradid to outlive me especially seeing someone in Germany had one that was 47 at the time.
ps I have one of those weird brains that remembers silly things like prices, useless facts or scientific names but forgets I put the ro on.
I know when I was in the industry I was never asked how long anything would live for unless it had already died, like do neons only live a year kind of thing, so i'm not sure people really plan ahead.
I lost a silver dollar a week ago that was 20, it was part of a trio I bought for 80p each when I was 12 and I still have the other 2, so 4p a year is a bit of a bargain. I still have a silver shark that's over 20 (£2.10), a synodontis ocellifer (splashed out at £11), an unknown syno that only had one eye (85p), The aforementioned clown loaches now 6 but were 11, the single stripe loach (3.10), an ancistris that's about 18 and a striped doradid that's 27 (£3.75).
I know these are bigger species so expected to live a long life and I've had many other fish that were 15+ before they passed but I've seen people have corydoras for over 20 years and I have pencil fish at the moment pushing 6-7 which is quite old for a tetra like species.
So does anyone else plan for how long they might have things? I know most people tend to change there scape and sometimes stocking (I change the décor from time to time but have my fish for life) but its surprising how long some of our friends might be with us. I fully expect the doradid to outlive me especially seeing someone in Germany had one that was 47 at the time.
ps I have one of those weird brains that remembers silly things like prices, useless facts or scientific names but forgets I put the ro on.