How old are your fish?

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 30 Mar 2004, 06:24

I am certain this topic has been covered on these forums in the past, but I'm not turning anything up in a search.

So how old are your catfish? I was giving my wife a tour of the fish in my tanks the other night (a rarity, my wife in my fishroom!) and explaining what each fish was and where and when I got it(them). Through the course of the conversation, she was surprised at how old allot of my fish were. When I got to thinking about it, to some degree, so was I. Hence the motivation for the post.

The standouts in my fishroom are:
2 (of a colony of five) Synodontis multipunctatus purchased in 1995 as adults.
A pair of driftwood cats Parauchipeterus galeatus purchased in 1994.
12 Auchenipterichthys thoracatus purchased in 1994 as young adults.
3 Liosomadoras morrowi also purchased in 1994 as 4" long fish. (Currently ~8")
4 Tatia galaxias purchased in 1993 as adult fish.

All of these fish are active candidates for breeding projects. With the exception of the Black Jaguars and the Driftwood cats (both in a 125g community), the rest are in species only set-ups. These are all vigorous adult fish.
Plans are currently underway for the Jaguars. Got some experimenting to do!

Just something to think about.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 30 Mar 2004, 12:13

lots of catfishes......

from oldest to..:
3 Mochokiella paynee; purchased in summer 1986 as sub-adults; likely 20 years old. there were 5, but 2 have gone to fishy heaven last year.
3 Amphilius rheophilus, bought as subadults in 1996

2 Ancistrus spp breeding pair; bought as youngsters around 1997-1998

5 Synodontis polli, hand-caught and imported by Rene Kruter around 1990-1992, they were adult at the time; current age unknown, but at least 14-16 years old (because those fish mature in 4 years minimum).

all my other cats are from later date (1999 and up), bought as adults (Phyllonemus typus, Synodontis petricola Burundi, Lophiobagrus brevispinis, Rhineloricaria spp, Corydoras robinae) or young (Auchenoglanis occidentalis, Lophiobagrus cyclurus, Synodontis sp "polli white Zambia")

The oldest cats I know personally are 3 Synodontis nigriventris. 2 of those 3 I bought myself as subadults in 1984! the third is a younger one, bought as subadult in 1991.....All three still reside in Pectorale's tanks for the last 8 years or so, to this day! Those 2 are the remainers of a group of 5, aquired in Belgium at a length of 4-5 cm. S nigriventris is at least 2 years old at that size, so there's plenty reason to believe, these oldtime dwarfs are really 22 years old......

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 30 Mar 2004, 18:24

Synodontis are certainly long lived.

About ten years ago, I lost a Synodontis flavitaeneatus (my favorite Syno. species) that was confirmed to be over 22 years old. I had it seven years total and lost it to learning about quarantine procedures the hard way!

Haven't made the same mistake since!

CichliDon · Post by **CichliDon** » 26 Jun 2015, 14:52

I know this is an old thread, but I couldn't resist adding my two cents! I acquired my first Synodontis multipunctatus in 1990. He was about 3" long. He's a proud papa and about 6" long and still swimming today! 25 years old. 4 years later, I got 4 more, and they are all swimming too!

Viktor Jarikov · Post by **Viktor Jarikov** » 26 Jun 2015, 15:58

Cross-referencing a relevant thread: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... s+eupterus

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 26 Jun 2015, 19:43

Viktor Jarikov wrote:Cross-referencing a relevant thread: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... s+eupterus

And some more (these are the results of a search for "lifespan" in the forum, with references to non-catfish lifespans removed):
Corydoras aeneus lifespan?
Hypancistrus zebra?
Corydoras paleatus, lifespan
Cuckoo syno lifespan
bagarius yarelli lifespan?
My L134 Breeding efforts
13+ year old l14(long lived?)
Amblydoras nauticus species Tank
Platydoras armatulus lifespan?
Old ancistrus
Re: Striped Raphael/Humbug -dying/gasping @ tank
S. Brichardi and small fish
A very old Pterygoplichthys pardalis I think..
Oldest Synodontis in Glossop/UK/World?
Re: Oto with a serious problem, what is this ?
Alternatives for an L204
Re: lifespan of eupterus...
Re: Lost an old friend
Question on lifespan of Microglanis Iheringi
how old are your corys
Chaetostoma sp. Dies
Ancistrus in planted tank
how long does a clarias live?
Please help: Microglanis iheringi sick
Catfish longevity
Breeding other Catfish
Panda Cory spawn
Fattening up Otocinclus?
Which substrate for Erethistes sp.???
Big cats, good news or bad news?
pictus
Noob to Cats, old to the hobby
Chaca chaca lifespan?
whats the lifespan?
Pseudopimelodidae lifespan
Clown pleco lifespan
Average lifespan of spotted cories
Juvenile tiger shovelnose
royal pleco
Age of Pleco
Royal Pl*co (Panaque)

And then there's this: why is there no expected age/lifetime in Cat-eLog?

Perhaps to be expected, as you look at the older posts (the bottom of the list), there are fewer personal experience statements and more "I've heard..." and "I expect...". I think this change from the older posts to the newer posts (with more personal experiences and declarative empirical statements) is a testament to the determined progress made by fish keepers over the years, and to the role of PlanetCatfish in recording the info in places like the forum.

Not included in this list are all of the forum threads about the effect of temperature on aging and lifespan. If you want to read about that, use the forum search for "lifespan" and "temperature": http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/sear ... mit=Search

Cheers, Eric

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 27 Jun 2015, 09:16

Apart from temperature, I think water chemistry also will have a dramatic effect on lifespan.

Imagine a blackwater fish, being kept @ pH 7 in water of 400 microsiemens. It did not die, but it had to adapt, and this adaptation will cost lost of it lifespan.

Therefore the information a fish has been kept for 10 years only means that if kept under similar conditions the lifespan is 10 years. Or more. That is, it has not much meaning.

Viktor Jarikov · Post by **Viktor Jarikov** » 27 Jun 2015, 18:06

Is there a scientific support you could cite for this statement, Bas, or is it more of a suspicion / speculation / hunch / interpretation of personal experience kind of thing?

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 30 Jun 2015, 07:38

I don't have any scientific paper for this, it is an interpretation of what I know, combined with what I saw. And what I have found many others I respect have seen too. I had a good discussion about this with Thomas Wiedner, the author of the South American earth eaters book

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