[Seafan]

I am doing some research on the average and maximum life span of individual (aquarium) fish species, both in the wild and in captivity. Does anyone know where I may find that information? Thanks!

[Biomanjcs72]

Don't know where you can find the info, but some species have longer lifespan's in captivity than in the wild. FWIW, corals don't age, and therefore are essentially immortal, in that sense (disease/predators, of course take their toll.)

Inserted as an afterthought:
FWIW I have a FW Clown Loach (Botia Macrantha) that I have had for 7 years now (and he's VERY healthy).

[Ninong]

This question keeps popping up on the boards every now and then. I have not found any site with a nice neat chart that simply lists different species of fish with estimated lifespans.

You can usually find estimated lifespans for individual species by doing a search on that particular species. All of the figures will pertain to natural lifespan in the wild. Various authors have given their estimates for lifespan in captivity. The most pessimistic estimates are those given by Robert Fenner www.wetwebmedia.com I have corresponded by e-mail with him on this subject and he still holds to his estimates. His calculations include all the animals that perish in the collection, handling and shipping process, as well as those that perish at the LFS and in the custody of newbies.

Here are a few figures that I came across: Koi are extremely long lived in captivity if given proper conditions and care; 40-60 years is common. The oldest documented lifespan in captivity for an individual Koi is 217 years! Goldfish can easily survive in captivity for 25-40 years. (Captivity for Koi and Goldfish means an outdoor pond.)

Many species of groupers are long lived, 20-50 years is common and some scientists believe certain groupers may live to be 100. Killifish have a very short lifespan, usually 1 year. Catalina gobies, which require temps around 68F in captivity, probably live only about 2 years in the wild.

The saltwater hobby is relatively young but a few pioneer hobbyists have kept clownfish for 14-20 years in captivity, which probably exceeds their lifespans in the wild. Angelfish have also been kept in captivity in excess of 12 years. We should have a better fix on lifespans in captivity after another 20 years has passed. Might be an interesting question to pose to some of the public aquariums, assuming they would be willing to give you a straight honest answer and not just quote their success stories.

If you find anything, please post it for us.

Thanks,

Ninong

[Seafan]

Originally posted by Ninong
This question keeps popping up on the boards every now and then. I have not found any site with a nice neat chart that simply lists different species of fish with estimated lifespans.

I am working on a project to set up a web site with a FAQ page for each salt water aquarium fish species based on hobbyists' experiences. I hope to have this information in there. It will take time to build up this site, and I hope to get everybody's input. I'll post when I start the first one next week.

You can usually find estimated lifespans for individual species by doing a search on that particular species.

Where would you do this search? Do you mean here at RL, or some other source? Please let me know.

All of the figures will pertain to natural lifespan in the wild. Various authors have given their estimates for lifespan in captivity. The most pessimistic estimates are those given by Robert Fenner www.wetwebmedia.com I have corresponded by e-mail with him on this subject and he still holds to his estimates. His calculations include all the animals that perish in the collection, handling and shipping process, as well as those that perish at the LFS and in the custody of newbies.

Actually I visited his site and read your correspondence with him. His estimate is not what I am looking for though. My motivation of putting this info in the FAQ is for us hobbyists to know the maximum life span the fish could have, and use that as a goal of our fishkeeping.

Many species of groupers are long lived, 20-50 years is common and some scientists believe certain groupers may live to be 100. Killifish have a very short lifespan, usually 1 year. Catalina gobies, which require temps around 68F in captivity, probably live only about 2 years in the wild.
The saltwater hobby is relatively young but a few pioneer hobbyists have kept clownfish for 14-20 years in captivity, which probably exceeds their lifespans in the wild. Angelfish have also been kept in captivity in excess of 12 years.

Do you have the source of those numbers? I'd like to put them in the FAQ, so people don't get too happy about being able to keep a fish alive a few months or a few years. I believe fish could/should have a longer life span in captivity than in the wild without predators and diseases. The Giant Panda in DC zoo lived much longer than most of them in their natural habitat, why can't we do the same for our fish? As long as we know their diet and other needs, we should be able to achieve that. OTOH, if we know their natural life span and can't come close to that, it shows we don't quite understand them yet.

We should have a better fix on lifespans in captivity after another 20 years has passed.

I hope we could start now.

Might be an interesting question to pose to some of the public aquariums, assuming they would be willing to give you a straight honest answer and not just quote their success stories.

Do you know any public aquarium that I could contact?
Thanks.

BTW, how is your new tank doing?

[Ninong]

The first thing that I usually do if I am searching for information on a particular species is to run a search in my browser's search engine using the correct scientific name of the species. I just entered Pseudochromis fridmani, for example, and got 127 hits. The first one I decided to click on is a hobbyist who says his reef tank is more than 10 years old: http://www.dupla.com/e054.htm I figured I would be interested in viewing his site regardless of whether it contained any useful information or not, just to see if he posted any nice pics. (He did!) He even discusses lifespans for the fish he has kept.

When I do this, I usually ignore all of the vendor sites and concentrate on academic sites or hobbyist sites. You can also enter the common names but you will have a better shot at finding someone's doctoral thesis if you enter scientific names. You can enter common names in more than one language if you want to pick up foreign sites, too.

If you enter Carassius auratus (the common goldfish) you will find an article at Britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/seo/g/goldfish/ that gives you quite a bit of info in a consise format (they give 25 years for max lifespan in captivity). I have found that the encyclopedia sites like Britannica and Encarta are not reliable sources of accurate information. For example, Britannica claims maximum length for Amphiprion percula is 5 cm (2").

If you enter "Koi," you get 48 hits. If you enter the Japanese common name, "Nishikigoi," you get a few thousand hits. If you enter the scientific name you end up with a lot of stuff about common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Always check with fishbase: http://www.fishbase.org/search.cfm and also http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca.us/ whenever you are doing a search (also Fenner's site, naturally).

If you want to contact public aquariums, you could always start at home and contact the Audubon Institute (Aquarium of the Americas), the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, plus many more (don't forget the Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii).

The figures I gave you are just some that I remember from browsing various sites--like the fact that nudibranchs have a natural lifespan of only 1 to 2 years and for that reason alone are a poor choice for an aquarium. I agree with you that most fish would have a longer lifespan in captivity IF given ideal conditions... easier said than done.

Ninong

P.S. - My tank is not set up yet.