Lifetime of your fish

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Taratron
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Lifetime of your fish

Post by Taratron »

Today I woke up to the unfortunate sight of one of my larger, adult zebra plecos dead in the tank. I quickly did a water change and scooped her out and realized that I've lost two zebras so far this year. I thought 2021 was supposed to be better than 2020 LOL.

But looking back, I realized that the two I lost this year I've had for at least a decade and they were adults when I got them. How long do most plecos live? Doing a search online indicates some live for 5 years which I find highly dubious and probably due to bad husbandry. I'm pretty sure there was a gentleman on here who had corys that lived for two decades at least! And he knew that because he'd actually spawned the fish himself and knew their exact birthday.

So how old is your oldest fish?
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by Woodh »

Interested in the subject but got no fun anecdot myself since I am back to the hobby after a long hiatus. Hope others chime in. Sorry about the zebras.
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by Kryptic »

I just received, maybe a week ago, a Synodontis flavitaeniatus that is supposedly in his twenties and honestly he does look like it as well. I also have some other synos getting close to being in their twenties. But the oldest fish I have ever heard of was a 37 year old S. decorus. Someone in a Finnish aquarium forum told a long time ago that they got the fish as an adult and they had kept the fish for 37 years. Now thats impressive!

Altough none of those were plecos, I've heard some larger species living well over two decades. I wouldn't be supprised if some smaller species like Hypancistrus sp. would break the two decade mark.
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by Bas Pels »

My oldest fishes were 2 Platydoras costatus - later I found out they were P armatulas which I got in 1988. They died last year, after 32 years

A pleco, Pt gibbivceps lived 24 years

I did not have any other fish over 20 years.
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by N0body Of The Goat »

I've just lost my Synodontis notatus, bought as a fully grown adult ~9.5 years ago, it wouldn't surprise me if it was ~20 years but I don't recall the seller saying how old the fish was. Such a gentle giant, it shared a tank with my old group of Pencilfish for one night, before I slept very uneasily and moved the unharmed pencilfish the next morning. Shocked me how heavy the fish was when I retrieved it, far heavier than I recall my adult Synodontis budgetti being last year.
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Thebiggerthebetter
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Re: Lifetime of your fish

Post by TwoTankAmin »

I purchased a proven breeding group of zebra plecos in Apr. 2006. My belief was the fish were 4 -5 years old when I got them, possibly some were 6. I still have about 8 of them today. I have replaced those lost and add a few more, the group still spawns. I cannot say the spawns involve the oldest fish, but they might.

I have a couple of large clown loaches I got at about 4 inches in 2002.
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