Old ancistrus

[naturalart]

My good old male ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, that I've had for over 10yrs. died a day ago. He was a great fish who was able to put up with all my bumbling and tumbling attempts at keeping and understand fish. I dont doubt that he died as a result of my attempts. RIP my good friend.

My question is: Does anyone have any insight on the total lifespan of this species in or out of captivity? I did a forum search and there is plenty on breeding them, but not much on length of life.
If we can get and compile the info, it would be good to publish in cat-elog as a goal and precurser for prospective fishkeepers.

[MatsP]

Sorry for your loss.

I think 10 years is pretty good for this species, but I'm not sure how long one can expect them to live. My oldest one is over 6 years old, and hopefully it will stay with me for several more years.

The information of "expected lifespan" (wild or captive) is a very difficult figure. We can perhaps find the "record number of years", but far too many fishkeepers don't know how to properly look after their fish, or have accidents (filter stops working, heater sticks on, they buy a new fish that brings some horrible decease, etc, etc), that the data of "how long does this fish live" becomes very hard to determine. It has been suggested several times that we should have this in the cat-elog, but it's been shot down for several reasons:
1. The data is really hard to accumulate - there are some web-sites with a dozen or more species, but the actual number we'd get by scouring the entire web may be 100-150. That leaves something like 2400 with no data - not a particularly useful set...
2. Just like for humans, unless we have a LOT of samples, it would be hard to say how accurate it is - did the fish live to what is comparable to a (western) human's unusual 100th year, or to a more average 80th, or a below average 40th? Humans CAN live to 100, but many don't, and whilst a lot of humans live past 70, some die younger than that, and some die quite young for a variety of natural or un-natural causes. If we don't have a lot of data, then it's not helpful to state "this fish lives to be about 10 years old"...

In the long term, we may be able to achieve some information via the "my cats" section (but often fish is bought from a shop, and the date of birth is not known - especially for fish that was wild-caught).

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Mats

[naturalart]

Mats thanks for the in depth reply. I totally understand the difficulty of obtaining this data. But just a thought you may have heard already: maybe if its phrased 'anecdotally' instead of scientifically in the comments section. For example: "There have been keepers claiming they have kept this species for up to 7-10 years." Just a thought.

[MatsP]

But if it's anecdotal information, what use is it. We pride ourselves with having a good set of data. I still think that the My Cats, if we gather data for a long time, we can get some statistics [at least of "how long do people usually keep this fish", that's not necessarily the same as the lifespan, but it's an indication of how long they are in someones tank].

I think most smaller plecos (but not Oto's etc) live for about 10-20 years in captivity - in nature, they probably get predated on more often, so lifespan is shorter.

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Mats

[DJ-don]

I think most smaller plecos (but not Oto's etc) live for about 10-20 years in captivity - in nature, they probably get predated on more often, so lifespan is shorter.

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Mats

and wouldn't fish live in captivity longer because we give them a constant food source?? because in the wild fish would have to scavenge constantly for food

[MatsP]

At older age, food is probably not a crtical factor. Very few fish die directly from starvation - sometimes when they get old, they stop eating for some other (usualy "medical") reason.

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Mats

[naturalart]

Thanks for the thought of the "My Cats" section, Mats. Didn't think if that. Thats a good place to look for info and/or start to compile data.