Poll: How old is your oldest SW fish? And what is it?

[Dancingmad]

10 year old yellow tang - first SW fish I ever purchased

 

[mejiamale]

I still have the first fish i bought 10yrs ago. Yellow tang then i bought a clown he is 3 months apart.

 

[Neptune1707]

How old is your oldest SW fish?

1) What is it? Blue Hippo Tang 12 years old

2) What is the main reason it has lived so long? Meaning husbandry tips

not really sure, but I’m going to start with the fact he was a very healthy specimen from the beginning. I moved home 3 times in 2 years, 2 power outages and at least 3 ick outbreaks....he’s a tank. Had a little HLLE from copper treatments, but selcon, vitachem and tons of nori and a few years, seeing reversal.

 

[Deezill]

3 years yellow tang.

 

[hybridazn]

my female clown has been through 5 reef tanks with me. I got her back in 2013 for the Nano in 90 contest here on R2R

Plus my sump lol


My oldest is my powder blue tang. 12 years old this year. Well I've had him for 12 years, I'm guessing he's really 13-15 years old total. As for tips to getting him to this point? Mostly luck really, And feeding lots of algae.

 

[DAPG8GT]

I have my first ever saltwater fish still with me.. I got a pair of ocellaris ( full grown) in 1998 with my first dive into SW from freshwater tanks. So about 20 years in my care now. Must have been at least a year or two when I got them.

Best advice and really the Only thing I can say is your not keeping fish and corals .. Your keeping water.

 

[pscheel2]

Maroon Clownfish 16 years

 

[vetteguy53081]

Of all fish, my cleaner wrasse who eats anything introduced to tank. Have him close to 5 years.

 

[Danj]

Have had my female Percula Clown for 14 years now, and she's still breeding every month like clockwork. Took more than a few acts of heroism to keep her going all these years. She once had the skin ripped clean off her lower jaw after getting stuck in an overflow that I foolishly didn't set the guard properly for. Then about a year later, I had to hold her down while pulling out a rock that she jammed in her mouth while clearing out her breeding grounds. Then there were the two week long power outages for Irene and Sandy... protip, when you're in a pinch, you can use your car as a 'generator' to keep pumps and a heater going

Technically my tank is in its 20th year - was a 38 gallon, then 10 (while I was at college), then 40 breeder, and now have a Red Sea Penninsula 500 being delivered next week. ;Woot Only things left from back then are most of the live rock and all the lovely purple star polyp that has covered nearly every inch of them.

 

[Donavon]

How old is your oldest SW fish?

1) What is it?

2) What is the main reason it has lived so long? Meaning husbandry tips

I have one left out of 5 Bangui cardinals, a pair of ocellated clowns and a pair of yellow tailed blue damsels

All are seven years old, all original inhabitants of my first reef

 

[TimR]

13 year old sailfin and 12 year old hippo.

 

[Csi]

Oldest is a Lo vulpinis.

 

[Narniahopper]

I have two 12 year old clowns (sold as Perculas, never really cared to confirm it), an 11 year old yellow tang, and I just lost a 10 year old royal gramma.

Honestly not sure why. I used to think it was because I was a light feeder, which may be true due to water quality, but honestly I think there's more than a little luck to it. Clowns and tangs can obviously live quite a while though.

 

[Ksmmike]

I got back into the hobby a year ago and have the same 4 fish that I purchased soon after buying the biocube. They are 2 clowns, (Boris and Natasha) my pygmy angel (Carl)
and my yellow watchman goby (Floyd).

I also now have a 120 gallon, which I started this past Jan 1st. It has a yellow tang (Glenn) and half chocolate mimic tang (Snickers)
a leopard wrasse (Machuka) a Foxface (Hendrix) a neon dottyback (no name yet) and two clowns in QT (Izzy and Lizzy). I'll probably add a lawnmower blenny and maybe a swallowtail angel, though that is less likely now that I recently added a clam to the tank. I'd love to add a purple tang, but I know that's really pressing my luck, so it might be a kole eye or a different bristletooth tang. I know 3 tangs in a 120 is pushing the limits, which is why I haven't done it yet. The yellow and mimic (not the yellow which turns brown but a half chocolate mimic) battle it out now and again but for the most part they tolerate each other. Adding a 3rd tang might settle it, or create more wars. You never know till you try, but 10 fish will be the limit, no matter what I settle on for the last few fish. I'd love to get a gold rim or convict tang but I fear they would out grow the tank too fast.
I hope to keep them all until I leave the hobby.

 

[topjimmy]

I have a pair of clowns that are almost 20.

 

[Solis Reef]

Big blue is 8yrs old I got it when I got back in to this addiction we call hobby lol.

 

[RtomKinMad]

We adopted a Sohal and Koran angel that our LFS sold to small tank owners over ten years ago and when they got to big the owners returned to the store as the owner promised to rehome them. Both were in 75 gal tanks. We put them in a 180 together. They are over 10yrs old. We also rescued a 10+ yr old porqupine puffer. We have had all three for 2 yrs in a 180gal and they got much bigger! They are super fat and happy. Feed Nori 3xweek or more, frozen krill daily, mysis and brine daily and every other day Rods predator blend. Have several other fish and an eel with them. Had the Eel for 3 yrs. we also have a reef tank with our first fish- pair of clowns, hippo tang and yellow tang all very small when we got them and put them in a 75gal. Couldn’t bare to return them when the hippo out grew the 75 so we build her a 300gal reef. Have had them for 4.5 years. Just feed nori, mysis and brine and spirolina to the reef. Learned late that we need to quarantine but don’t plan to add any more fish to either tank as both are currently happy and balanced

 

[Solis Reef]

And Pennywise the clown Fromm hell she is also 8 yrs. not the best picture but the only one I have

 

[Literallyhydro]

18 year old Maroon Clownfish. Only lived for that long because of how bulletproof he is. The tanks he's lived in have been too small for him, overstocked, poorly maintained etc. He's doing fine now though

 

[KMench]

My tank is only a little over a year old, so I still fall in the 0-1 range. Bought my first fish from petco and they lasted a little while before I bought some fish from liveaquaria.... added them and they mysteriously started disappearing. Basically ended up starting from scratch again after going fallow. Ever since then I’ve used a QT and haven’t lost a fish from the DT currently have a mandarin, two oscillaris, ornate leopard wrasse, pintail wrasse, golden rhomboid wrasse, tangaroa goby, tailspot blenny, and yellow butterfly