I have also seen a 17 year old yellow tang a few months ago. Pretty sure its the same one. Its really hard to believe it's actually 17 years old!

I remember a study a few years back that basically said they believe the natural lifespans of most tang species to be around 20 to 40 years.. So, 17 is not a bad start! :cool:

Wow! Some pretty old fishies there guys. Mine are still babies. :lol: Although the PJ Cardinal, Coral Beauty and Yellow Watchman were full grown when I bought them, so I'm figuring they are about six.
Tony, I remember Doug talking about his Clowns once a few years back and they were quite old then. Do you remember?

A couple of years ago we aquired a tank with a handful of fish from a fellow reefer who didnt have time for the hobby anymore. One of the fish is a flame hawkfish named Snoopy. He is 14+ years old.....at first i was skeptical on his age, then the owner showed me a picture of his teenage daughter at two and low and behold there was snoopy peeking out of the tank behind her trying to get in on story time. :)

I had Betty, a beautiful powdered brown A. Japonicus tank for 14 years. She was more than the boss of the tank she was the Queen.
It was very apparent that she had fond feelings for me her keeper.
In her last few days it was very hard to watch her slowly deteriorate.
When death was to be she lay on the bottom of the tank
I wanted to take her out so she would not drown and give her air.
Shortly thereafter I removed her and quickly euthenized her which was one of the most difficult things I have had to do.
It is tough to even post this.

I've had a tomato clown for the last 7 years that lived in someone else's tank for at least a year before mine. The snowflake moray is 6 years, the purple tang is 4, the fu man-chu lion and copper banded butterfly are both 3.