% of fish that survive a year?

[ca1ore]

Although it was not the intent of my original question a now retired friend who was in the ornamental fish trade for decades always told me he figured the survival rate of fish to retail purchase was about 5%. If you think about the various steps in the supply chain, and apply reasonable loss rates, that seems about right to me. Add in survival to 1 year and it's something less than 5%. I did not ask the question pejoratively, rather to get a sense of people's experiences.

I also make no judgment, after all I'm part of the 'problem'. As I and others have pointed out, the survival rate of fish collected for food is zero; and left in the ocean the median survival of an individual may well be comparable to those collected.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

This is not really on topic, but it really upsets me when people don't QT and treat their fish. I don't really say much other than "you should really QT, you could loose all your fish". But inside it drives me nuts. And some things are soo easy to treat. You would never but your kid in a school where they said "oh yeah, the school is infected with whoopinh cough, but if your kid is strong and not stressed it will be fine".

I know fish are not kids, but i can not help it, I just feel terrible when I loose a fish under my care. I want to apologize to someone or something...but to whom?.

 

[lion king]

@ca1ore I agree with your friend's analysis. I believe most hobbyist and the people in this conversation really don't want to know. It's easy enough to find the ugly truth, ever hear of google. Living in denial will allow you to enjoy your tanks more.

 

[Mark Gray]

Good question, I have for sure been known to go buy sick fish I see in stores. Their survival rate is below 50% maybe below 25% but I will say 75% of my mail order fish live well over a year.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I dont know the number sure its rather low between catch and final tank.

But whatever it is doesnt come near the total of damage done by some human consumption fishery methods(drag lines).
Also a large portion of fish purchased are juveniles that would have died via natural predation. The vast majority of fish produce between 50-300 fry and only a small percentage survive without human involvement.

Sure this isnt the friendliest fish story.
The one year i decided to breed koi i had to actively cull because of the number fry that were either deformed or reverted to carp. Basically 85% was food for the piranha i kept at the same time.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

So I wrote a 13 page research paper for my senior research paper on captive bred vs wild caught fish but also included this topic
The number of fish deaths is 37% of doa
With another 11% in the first week is what my study’s found

 

[Gareth elliott]

Side note, i have yet to talk to a reefer that doesnt intrinsically care about the animals they keep. And the continued growth of this hobby has lead to advancements in wild caring for their wild counterparts, that university funding would be unwilling to spend if these creatures didnt personally touch as many as they do through this hobby.

 

[ca1ore]

But whatever it is doesnt come near the total of damage done by some human consumption fishery methods(drag lines).

Of course not; not as much as agricultural runoff, or broader climate change either. But the ornamental industry is an easy target.

Also a large portion of fish purchased are juveniles that would have died via natural predation.

I've seen this point made before, and I think it's flawed logic. It would make more sense if fish were collected as fry, but not as juveniles. Further if a juvenile were collected instead of being eaten, another juvenile gets eaten that wouldn't otherwise. Butterfly effect.

 

[aurora.k]

I've got to believe the number is fairly low. My reasoning is the high turnover in my local LFS. I receive weekly "new arrivals," and someone must be buying them.

Edited my response because I was reading the question backwards and thinking you were saying low meaning few fish die. I agree with you that based on the stock it suggests a low survival rate. Also, just at the LFS (or even worse PetCo) I always see dead or ailing saltwater fish.