older fish... I've been going on 4 years now since restart into the hobby....

[Magnum Man]

things were rougher at the start for me, having rock hard water, and using house softened water in my tanks... so I only have a couple of 4 year old fish... now that I'm using RO water and most of my tanks have stabilized, I expect less fish turnover, and more aging... I think a couple silver dollars, including the one that had the tantrum yesterday, and my kissing gourami, and 2 flying foxes are the oldest fish here... my flying foxes were in the original pet store purchase to use as canaries on the newly restarted up tanks... I expect the gourami being only mid size, and not getting the "old man looking face" is less than middle aged, and maybe the same with the silver dollars... no idea of the life span of a fish like the flying foxes...

so what are your oldest fish, and how long have you had them???

 

[Gertrudae]

A "flying fish" is Epalzeorhynchos bicolor? They can live up to 15 years. However, they should be kept in larger groups, as a single fish or a few fish can terrorise the entire aquarium if there are no other fish of the same species with which they can interact.

My oldest single fish was an Ancistrus, about 12 years old. Many of the smaller fish do not live longer than 2 to 4 years. I count the time that a species lives and reproduces in my aquariums. The oldest are a strain of Endler's guppy, Tanichthys albonubes and Danio margaritatus, which have thrived here continuously for 20 to 30 years.

 

[GaryE]

I had cardinals wipe out at 9, during a wintertime power blackout. I'm 4 years in on their replacements, but they're mixed with their own young and all are the same size. So I'll never be sure.
I had a 12 year old Cory.
I've tended to go for tiny fish and they have shorter lifespans, in general. When I moved 4 years ago, I ended a bunch of longevity runs as I had to give fish to friends. I think we're going to hear of some old fish, like @TwoTankAmin 's clown loaches and such.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My biggest clown loaches have been with me a long time. The oldest came to me at about 3.5 - 4 inches in early 2003.

My original zebra pleco breeding group came to me in Apr. 20006 and were proven breeders meaning they were likely in the 4 -5 year age range. I began my down sizing about 3-4 years ago. years ago. This left me with only 4 zebras. Two were from the original group and two were the last of the offspring I still had. I needed to rehome them all in order to free up the tank for other uses or to be shut down.

So, I basically needed to find somebody I to whom I could give them and who I knew would give them good care. I found that person in one of the more recent members on this site. There was no charge for the fish and I covered the shipping. When I sent the r fish out I estimate that the two original fish had to be in their early 20s and had been in my tank for about 16-17 years.

Before I managed to crash their tank last year I had a group of Ambastaia sidthimunki aka dwarf chain loach, for at least 18 years.

I have a 5.5 gal planted tank which now only holds a colony of Neocaridina davidi aka red cherry shrimp, which has been. The original shrimp came to me about 17-18 years ago. Obviously none of the shrimp now are from the original group.

Finally, I still have most of the original WC H. L173 plecos which came to me in Oct. 2015 at about 4 years of age as they were almost mature enough to begin spawning. it took me about a year before I got the first spawn. I now consider them to be to old to sell as breeders since they have past their prime in that respect. I do know that the B&W Hypans from the Rio Xingu in Brazil mirror how we humans approach sex. When we are in our more youthful years we are ready to go almost daily, With the plecos once a dad is on eggs it usually will not reproduce until the fry are free swimming and get booted by the day of they do not leave on their own.

The way to get maximum fry output is to remove the wigglers from the dad. Once this has been done he is ready to go again. However, as the fish mature they will begin to slow down significantly in terms of the frequency of reproduction at somewhere in the 15 -17 year age range. They do not stop completely as I am aware of males spawning in their 20s. But the frequency will have slowed greatly. My 173 group last spawned about 6 months ago.

I cannot explain what makes some species shorter lived and others live a lot longer. What I do know is that size is not the defining issue, However, mist species which get pretty large take time to do so. This does mean that bigger fish generally usually have longer lifespans than do the smaller species. But my Hypancistrus plecos and the sidthiminkis shatter the idea that some smaller species do not do so as well.

 

[Back in the fold]

It’s the fish I have . All but my one lone Angelfish are short lived fish , two to three years tops under the best conditions . Endler’s / Guppies , Aplocheilus lineatus Gold Killifish , one lone male Veiltail Betta , and Fundulopanchax gardneri Killifish . I expect my Nothobranchius to start dying off soon now as they’re about six months old now .