How long do fish live?

[jefathome]

I know that this is a broad question and that there is variation by Genus/species, so I'll try to narrow this down.


How long would a Wrasse (Fairy) live in the wild?

What about a clown?

Tangs?

It seems like the tang would live the longest since they get so much bigger. Then again, small dogs live longer than big ones, so what do I know...

I tried looking through Fishbase, but none of them seem to have the age part listed.

 

[twon8]

i know someone with clowns 20 years old, and tangs live about the same age. i've got a yellow and regal that have been in captivity for 8 years+

 

[snorvich]

Strangely, they live longer in aquaria than in the wild. 15-20 years is certainly doable.

 

[DrBegalke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12793080#post12793080 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Strangely, they live longer in aquaria than in the wild. 15-20 years is certainly doable.

I've never heard that before... interesting. Is that average age? Including all the fish that die in transport/holding facilities/etc?

 

[td1415]

It's not an "average age". An average would have to include all the fish that are born--in other words, how many eggs are laid, how many fry you have, how many make it to 1 year, etc. Given how few eggs will make it to 1 year old, it's safe to say the *average* lifespan is well under 1 year.

A lifespan of 15-20 years for an individual fish requires good health and a large, stable system with a competent keeper. In other words, it is basically the best-case scenario and should be the goal we all have for our fish.

I would guess that the reason fish live longer in the aquaria than the wild is because after a certain age, in a stable system, the fish's chance of continuing survival is very high. In the wild, that may not be the case because there will always be predators--whether the fish is 4 years old or 15 years. But that's just me speculating.

Regardless, in order to accurately assess a fish's lifespan you would need to know how old it was when it was pulled from the ocean.

 

[snorvich]

I tend to agree with td1415; I too speculate that lack of predation is why they "can" live longer in aquaria. But, as implied, not all aquarists keep their fish in good situations.

In any case, I would never use "average" in an answer on reef central because of all the variables involved in measuring averages in populations. In any case an average without standard deviation would be sort of meaningless.

 

[greenbean36191]

For wild populations this information isn't known. For clowns it's especially hard because size doesn't correlate with age, which is one way you normally figure out the population structure.

 

[das75]

A fantastic captive lifespan poll was put together over on Canreef.com (see here) where there's a forum for species, then sub-forum for individual type