old salt
Community Member
I have read posts on some forums where fellow reefers have had fish to live 3, 5 even for 11 years. The longest I have had a fish to live for is six months. What is the secret for longevity?
Fish Longevity
- Thread starter old salt
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4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Six months? Oh my that's terrible 
I can get a fish infested with ich and parasites sometimes to live six months as long as it eats a lot!
I can get a fish infested with ich and parasites sometimes to live six months as long as it eats a lot!
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
@Paul B, @3FordFamily, and @Humblefish are 3 people who can give great info here. Ultimately, there are lots of factors that play into this: water quality, appropriate diet, etc.
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
Ha! I was just tagging you.Six months? Oh my that's terrible
I can get a fish infested with ich and parasites sometimes to live six months as long as it eats a lot!
I've had many fish live 10-15 years. But I can't beat @Paul B. I believe he has some fish that are 20+ years old.
If your fish are only lasting 6 months, something is terribly wrong. Could be a slow killing disease, such as gill flukes. As mentioned above QT is key. Once you get a fish with a clean bill of health in your disease-free tank, all you need to worry about really is maintaining good water parameters and aggression from other fish.
If your fish are only lasting 6 months, something is terribly wrong. Could be a slow killing disease, such as gill flukes. As mentioned above QT is key. Once you get a fish with a clean bill of health in your disease-free tank, all you need to worry about really is maintaining good water parameters and aggression from other fish.
njtiger aquariums
Well-Known Member
6 months? I had a hard time with yellow tangs at first. Couldn't go more than a month. I learned quickly it was how I was feeding and my Yellow is coming near the 6 month mark. *knock on wood* everyone seems very happy and healthy in my tank.
I think it may help a lot if you describe your system and let us know the parameters. Also what kind of fish are you trying to keep?
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
old salt
Community Member
I have a 140g tank with a 30g trickle filter sump. Tank is fish only with dry rock. Water parameters are NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3-5. Temp 80deg.
Have a 25watt UV. Dose 10ml/day with Red Sea NO3
O4-X to keep my nitrates down. Had a terrible algae problem until I used this. Mainly try to keep Tangs and Angelfish. My fish show no signs of difficulty when they die. My blueface angel was fine yesterday, swimming around the tank
and eating. I get up this morning it was dead. The blueface was the one I had for six months. My tank will be two years old in January 2016. I do water changes every 2 weeks.
Have a 25watt UV. Dose 10ml/day with Red Sea NO3
O4-X to keep my nitrates down. Had a terrible algae problem until I used this. Mainly try to keep Tangs and Angelfish. My fish show no signs of difficulty when they die. My blueface angel was fine yesterday, swimming around the tank and eating. I get up this morning it was dead. The blueface was the one I had for six months. My tank will be two years old in January 2016. I do water changes every 2 weeks.
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Sounds like there is a parasite, but would need to know if they are "scratching" on anything? Any spots or cloudiness on the eyes or body?
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Also, have you tested for Ammonia or Nitrites?
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
I have a 140g tank with a 30g trickle filter sump. Tank is fish only with dry rock. Water parameters are NH3-0, NO2-0, NO3-5. Temp 80deg.
Have a 25watt UV. Dose 10ml/day with Red Sea NO3
and eating. I get up this morning it was dead. The blueface was the one I had for six months. My tank will be two years old in January 2016. I do water changes every 2 weeks.
I had a case of velvet that did this. Wrasse were mostly unharmed but Angels would die seemingly out of nowhere. One day they're happy and eating, next day cryptic and hiding, following day dead. This happened for months and there were no symptoms other than that (except my emperor Angels kept "bleaching" out in spots). Tangs would die too probably also from ich (I managed ich for years but recently quit because it was killing too many fish and I wanted to keep more rare and difficult to keep fish). One day a chevron tang showed classic velvet symptoms after months of me thinking I "fixed" the problem (flukes via prazi, more oxygen via power heads aimed at top, huge water changes due to high nitrates among many other things I thought were the problem). Cupramine for everyone and velvet has been long gone ever since.
This strain of velvet was so so hard to identify I was so fed up. I've been in the hobby over 12 years and have seen velvet both at the LFS I worked at and my home aquariums twice before this. This newer strain was very stealth and hard to identify.
It's going around fish retailers and wholesalers (online) as I see many on here with very similar circumstances...
Breakthecycle2
2500 Club Member
Pretty much sums up what my Velvet was like.
First you need to determine if it is, in fact, a disease afflicting your fish. And narrow it down to which disease it might be. Can you catch one of your fish and perform a FW dip? To check for flukes (see below)?
Freshwater Dip: Provides temporary relief for Brooklynella, Flukes, Marine Velvet disease (Amyloodinium); possibly even Ich & Uronema marinum (both unproven). Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes.
How To Treat - Fill a bucket with RODI water, and use a heater to match the temperature to the water the fish is coming from. Aerate the water heavily for at least 30 minutes prior to doing the dip, then discontinue aeration while performing the dip. Fish aren’t overly pH sensitive for short durations like this, but you can squirt a little tank water into the dip just before the fish goes in to help bring it up.
Place the fish in the freshwater (FW) dip and observe closely. It is not unusual for them to freak out a little at first. Also, tangs are notorious for “playing dead” during a FW dip. The important thing is to watch their gills; they should be breathing heavily at all times during the dip. If breathing slows, it’s time to exit the dip. Dip the fish for no longer than 5 minutes. Multiple dips may be done, but it’s important to give your fish a day to recuperate in-between dips.
For flukes, use a dark (preferably black) bucket so you can see if tiny white worms fall out of the fish (especially out of the gills) at around the 3-4 minute mark. The worms will settle to the bottom, so you can use a flashlight to look for them there as well.
Pros - Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases in a chemical free environment. Can “buy you more time” until a proper treatment can be done.
Cons/Side Effects - Not a permanent “fix” for any disease, as FW dips are not potent enough to eradicate all of the parasites/worms afflicting the fish. Some fish can have an adverse reaction to a FW dip by appearing unable to maintain their equilibrium once returned to the aquarium. If this happens, hold the fish upright (using latex, nitrile or rubber gloves), and gently glide him through the water (to get saltwater flowing through the gills again). It is also a good idea to place the fish in an acclimation box until he appears “normal”.
Harold Green
Well-Known Member
I'd like to give really good advice but it would go contrary to most. I think your water quality is the main factor in keeping marine fish. Healthy water and quality food will allow most marine fish to live for years. If you do have a disease problem it may be time for a teardown or at least a break from having fish in the tank. I'm not a believer in quarantine for fish as this is more added stress, that said if I had a tank of expensive fish I would keep the new fish separate for a period of a month or more in another live rock system, never in a bare tank. I don't believe it's possible to eliminate all marine diseases in the home tank so having a healthy system allows most fish to recover from many ailments by just the benefits of good water and food. Although most diseases can be hard to impossible to spot early in fish I still think it's important to spend time watching any fish you intend to buy for clues such as spots, errant swimming, failure to eat. This can reduce the number of ill fish you purchase and I've yet had a lfs refuse to feed a tank so I can see a fish eat before purchasing. Next up it's important to match the fish to each other and your system for their survival. Forty years ago it was common to lose fish frequently but with todays knowledge and equipment the majority of fish should survive for years without any issues.
