Monday, November 22, 2010

What is the longest living aquarium fish you have ever kept and how long?

I have tried to keep several different species of fish with not a lot of success. I know about water changes, pH, aeration etc., but the longest I've ever kept a fish was a Betta for 1 year. Just curious to know what species others have had success with.What is the longest living aquarium fish you have ever kept and how long?
I still have the first fish I bought when I set up my tank 3 years ago. It's a Goldpot pleco. I have a Sailfin pleco that I adopted that is about 6 years old now, but I have only had it for a year. And my old pond goldfish is still in a friends pond, I bought that about 8 years ago.



But small fish like guppies only live for a couple of years. They can still drop about 1,000 fry in that time though, so although I dont have my original guppies, I have their grand-fry still.



I have found that a big tank, good filtration, lots of water changes and just leaving everything else alone works best. The more you try and play with the water parameters the more problems you create. Just get some water conditioner and give your fish LOTS of fresh water.



Ian



Edit..



I have just got a freshwater crayfish from the stream in the garden, but I didn't count that as I only caught it on Monday. But it's about 3 inches long and probably 15 years old. The eel, that I left in the stream was probably 30 years old, but I dont have a tank to house a 3ft eel. :-)What is the longest living aquarium fish you have ever kept and how long?
goldfish while under the rite conditions or oscars and alot of cichlids
I had a silver arrowana that lived 18 years.
Well, considering I just set up my tanks again in the last 2 years, right now I currently have most of my original fish I bought about 2 years ago.



However, one of my Mom's tanks had an Angel fish survive for 12 years.



Best of Luck!
well it doest compare to the other fishes

ive had a bala shark for about four years now
ben L, you must be looking after your fish very well! in general, clown fish and most other marine species can live for 20-30 years but usually only last 5 years. i have never owned a marine aquarium but would love to one day!

now: when i was 5 we had a tank with three goldfish; i think two were comets and mine was a black moore. they lived for, oh say, five or six years. they would have lasted a lot longer if i had known what i knew today, but i was only 5! we only had a box filter and their tank was way too small for them. they grew to 6-7+ inches, around about, one of the comets was white and the other was gold. they were beautiful fish, the white one grew very well in the tank. if you keep goldfish in the correct conditions, they can live much much longer. you might want to try these:

dojo/weather loach, cold water, average 10years:

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles

guppies; the wild type are not ascolourful, but are hardier. guppies and endlers are much the same in many cases:

http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles

http://www.guppies.com/

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Poeci

any of the livebearers are generally pretty hardy (swordtails, wild swordtails, platies, mollies etc) and come in many different varieties:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/liveb.htm

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishind

coldwater fish, in general, live the longest and are usually hardier and accept a wider range of conditions. this site i have found very handy and if you google search a fish you can find many many more great and extensive sites:

http://www.aquahobby.com/age_of_aquarium

best of luck =]
I have only had my tank set up for a couple of years now, but I have read that goldfish, angel fish, and algae eaters can live for a long time. I haven't researched any other ones.
Wow, well it doesn't compare to the clownfish (impressive), but I've had the same pleco and blue gourami for about six years now. They're still going strong. Of course... it is just the two of them, because the gourami managed to kill and eat every other fish that I've put in the aquarium, so I finally gave up.
my dad has a clown fish thats 21 or 22 yrs old now
16 yo goldfish, evetually gave him to a friend's pond..

was about 18''

then again i am 18 so that kinda puts a limit on how old the fish could be, lol



bettas should be able to get to about 5yo...

most tetras and small community fish should as well

cichlids usually 5-20yo

puffers up to 20

large fish in general live longer than small fish, some people guess that koi and others can live up to 100years.
My ghost knife and upside-down cat have been in my 55 since I set it up about five years ago.

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