Senior Citizen Fishes
 

This fall marks my first tank's 4th full year and I realized I still have 6 fish that have been with me since Day 1. A PJ Cardinal, Coral Beauty, Foxface, SF Tang, Yellow Watchman Goby, and an Ocellaris Clown. The Tang and the Foxface have since been moved over to the big tank but the other four remain in their original home.
I would love to hear about your old timers: I know some of you have fish over 10 years old.

Until my sw disasters last fall, I had several fish (ie. Purple tangs, YTs, Porc. puffer) that we've had for several years.

In the 210g I have a couple YTs for at least 7 years, and 2 Regals probably 5.

Flameback angel & yellow wrasse probably at the 4+ mark.

A lot of my fish though were bought from other reefers so many have probably been in captivity for 5-10 years.

My oldest are my clowns had them were the first fish i bought about 4 years ago. Still yet to breed for me though.

About 4 & a half years for mine and female Maroon (purchased as a juvenile) has been in there since shortly after set up. Blue Devil Damsel added at the same time died about a year ago. One of my Mandarin Dragonets has also been in there since it was a juvenile 4 years ago. Yellow Tang & Singapore came with a used 65 I purchased 3 years ago, no idea of age while with original owner. More recent additions are another juvenile Mandarin & Yellowtail Damselfish.

Don't really consider any of them senior citizens, but with a little luck, who knows. Female Maroon has had a partner for 3 years now & they're spawning away fairly consistently.

9 year old scopas tang. Lived through all my newby mistakes wipout cases of both ick and velvet. Not great to look at but she is an old friend to say the least.

Oldest I have are a Blue Tang and Ocellaris Clown pair. 6 years in captivity. Three with me three with previous handlers. Clowns get jiggy with it at least once a year.

I have seen a 17 (!) years old yellow tang. was not mine though. This was few years back i wonder if it still alive. Fish was very happy in 300 gal tank back then.
i don't know if YT can live that long but i was told it was that old.

I have an 11 year old yellow tang. I got it from a friend who had it for 9 years, and I've had it for 2.

Purple tang is coming up on 9 years, and though I've lost and replaced some clowns over the years pretty confidant there's a clown from about the same time.

My ocellaris clownfish "pair" is probably the longest "couple of fish" I've had at this point, since 1998, had them from the beginning .... the only problem is, they are not the original male and female anymore. The current female was once the male, but his female jumped out of their tank .. in .. um .. 2001 or 2002. So in fact they might still be the oldest fish I have anyhow as the next oldest fish, who may be my longest individual, is my desjardinin tang whom I bought in 2001 if I recall correctly. If not 2001 then early 2002. And for some reason I'm thinking my current female might have been a replacement male but I can't for the life of me remember what might have happened to transpire to need a new male, ie. whether it was the original male lost or the original female. It's been that long, apparently. :lol:

Up until about a year ago (I think? Maybe a bit longer now?) my oldest fish had been my sixline wrasse whom I had also had since the late 90's. Unfortunately though he found the magical portal to the reef in the sky.

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.