What percentage of your fish died within the first 3 years?

[Ninong]

An LFS owner made the claim that 97% of all fish in aquariums die within the first 3 years.

I thought it would be interesting to conduct a poll to see what the experience of the members has been. It might be helpful to repeat this same poll every couple of years to see if there is any improvement that might be attributed to a reduction in cyanide collection practices.

Disclaimer: Polls are strictly surveys of those who choose to participate and are therefore not valid statistical samples.

[wgscott]

Apart from a 6 lined wrasse that jumped out, no fish have died since the beginning, which was about 4 years ago now.

[scubadude]

ya know alot of reefers probably wont participate in this poll Ninong because they are within the 3 year mark. I would actually like to hear if their percentages went down after the one year mark. To me the most I learned was in the first year which helped me sustain fish much better....the first 6 mos of loss was due to ignorance or lack of education of the fish....but Im also curious of the same question oriented toward corals and inverts as well.

[Ninong]

ya know alot of reefers probably wont participate in this poll Ninong because they are within the 3 year mark. I would actually like to hear if their percentages went down after the one year mark. To me the most I learned was in the first year which helped me sustain fish much better....the first 6 mos of loss was due to ignorance or lack of education of the fish....but Im also curious of the same question oriented toward corals and inverts as well.

Rocky,

I have the same poll going on RC: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=209063

Some of the points you raise are discussed there.

[wgscott]

An LFS owner made the claim that 97% of all fish in aquariums die within the first 3 years.

This unfortunately might well be true. I would imagine the average person that buys some saltwater fish kills them all and quits within a year.

I had the benefit of doing this once before as a kid (which was a long time ago) and this time around had money, patience, and vastly better advice, and about 20 years of laboratory science under my belt.

The type of people here are either experienced enough not to kill fish or are the type that want to avoid killing fish and are willling to seek out advice.

Knowing what fish not to try in the first place helps a lot too. Captive-raised clownfish are much easier to keep. I have a blue tang raised from near-plankton state and it is alive probably because it wasn't collected with CN-

[zhenya]

This unfortunately might well be true. I would imagine the average person that buys some saltwater fish kills them all and quits within a year.

I agree that it is mostly true if you look at the hobby as a whole.
If they move on after just one year the damage is done but does not continue by the same person. Unfortunately I know one that keeps killing them and will not quit,he just buys new ones

I've tried numerous times to make him read a book but to no avail,he's got rather thick wallet and the life he takes is of no importance to this
"hobbyist".
"its in my office and it looks good for the customers,I don't know why they die..."

[SueT]

This is something I really had not thought of or gave much thought to it. I have always had the mind set that I would rather acclimate a coral than a fish. That said of all my fish in both my 120g and 180g all but 3 have been with me for over 5 years. They have never had any sort of illness other than ich but that was even a long time ago. I think what Gene said is so sad. I think it is people like that, that make it hard for those of us who love each and every fish, coral, or tank inhabitant to get them to see the light. They are not hobbiests and never will be. I think that they think as long as the LFS has another one if this one dies I'll just go and get another. That is then without finding out why they keep dying.

[chet-tonja]

I've luckily only had a few casualties in 4 years of saltwater. I think most people who know about these boards are at least fairly successful. There are of the course the ones who never take advice, but it's the ones who impulse buy a setup after seeing a "cool" fish at the LFS who has most of the casualties...IMO

[Joaco]

This unfortunately might well be true. I would imagine the average person that buys some saltwater fish kills them all and quits within a year.

Or even worse. How many of the people buying 'Nemo tanks' for their kids will still be in the hobby in one year? and in 6 months?

I saw the 'Tetra infomercial' on The Early Show on CBS.
I guess MANY more saw it as well, and now think starting a marine tank is what they saw there on TV (boohoo..I will look for a link with the video)

I bet that the stats would be much worse if you ask about the same question in 3 years:

From those of you who bought a Nemo tank back then, how many of you still keep a marine tank?
and how many of you killed ALL your fish during the first year, and gave up because of it?

Joaco

[Joaco]

I saw the 'Tetra infomercial' on The Early Show on CBS.
I guess MANY more saw it as well, and now think starting a marine tank is what they saw there on TV (boohoo..I will look for a link with the video)

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here it is:

http://xanadu.ambrosiasw.com/~jchamp...h/SW/tetra.wmv

Joaco

[rpisces]

I believe more than 60% of my fishes died within the first 3 years! But then, you have to ask what the problems? I think it is better to have a poll on why the fishes died. For example, being bullied, being hungry, fell sick because of new fishes, suddenly gone after a few years etc. etc.