How old are your clowns?

[lmsmith]

I just googled 'how long do clownfish live' and got a range from 1 - 50 years. Apparently they live up to 50 yrs in the ocean but only about 8 in a tank. Why would they not live longer in a tank?

How old are your clowns?

 

[badharley99]

I have seen some in that 6-7 year range, not sure how long they really live though. 50 years seems crazy

 

[lmsmith]

I have seen some in that 6-7 year range, not sure how long they really live though. 50 years seems crazy

I've had mine for 4 years, and the guy who sold them to me had them for at least that long. I'd estimate mine are in the 8-9year age bracket. I hope I don't lose them anytime soon.

 

[Apercula]

My female was a juvenile in 2007 when I set up the tank so she is a solid 5years old. I would expect a clown in captivity to live a good 15-20 years barring accidents or disease introduction.

 

[saltyjo]

I have had my True Perculas since April of 2007, that makes them at least 5 years old also. They just started spawning on a regular basis for me last Thanksgiving. I am in the process of raising my 2nd batch of fry. I hope mine live a whole lot longer!

 

[NYCBOB]

mine is 7 years old.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

My pair is 6 years old and still spawning regularly.

 

[Whip316]

I have 2 different occy females over 8 years old. ORA said they have a spawning female around 25yrs old.
I think they will live 25+ in captivity.


Sent from my iPhone 4s using Tapatalk

 

[Breadman03]

I just googled 'how long do clownfish live' and got a range from 1 - 50 years. Apparently they live up to 50 yrs in the ocean but only about 8 in a tank. Why would they not live longer in a tank?

How old are your clowns?

I think that reduced lifespan in captivity can be due to less variety in their diet, disease outbreaks, and equipment malfunctions. How many times a week do we see a post about a bad heater killing everything or velvet wiping out the fish?

 

[NatureNerd]

16 years I have had the same clowns and LTA. See thread on moving an LTA.

 

[Reefing Newbie]

My pair of B&W ocellaris clowns are only 9 months old (bought from local breeder). Their parents are in the 6-7 year range.

 

[illcssd]

14 year old pair of gsm's.

 

[larac]

I've had my pair of Percs for nearly seven years. They were wild caught however and could have been in the lower juvenile hierarchy for some time.

The Wilkerson book lists captive age at 15 to 20 years, but that may change with advances in reefkeeping. I would be interested to know how they determined the 50 age range in the wild.

 

[paka]

I have a female that I raised from an egg in 1993. She is still my best breeder even at this age.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I would be interested to know how they determined the 50 age range in the wild.

No doubt!

At any rate, my longest lived pair were 16 years old when I last checked a few years ago. Who knows how long they had lived in the wild before that. Assuming they are still alive they would be 19 years in captivity (they are at a professional breeder's).

 

[Allmost]

11 years.


lost my 6 year old maroon couple of months back ... he was extra big when I got him so .... interestingly, he was with a lion fish for 6 years. I remove the lion, add an anemone, he goes in the anemone, and dies the day after ! I guess he was happy to be home

 

[badharley99]

Thats good on a couple of you that have that 15 year plus, and whats amazing they are still breeding good

 

[phender]

I had a pair of ocellaris for 20 years. They were breeding up until I screwed up and didn't read the directions a cyanobacteria killer well enough.

I too am skeptical about the 50 year old mark for wild specimens.

 

[NatureNerd]

I really wonder how long they can live in a system that is stable for decades. Usually, when I hear about long lived clowns dieing it is because of a keepers mistake or an introduced disease (a mistake too, I guess). My pair looks and acts the same as they did over a decade ago. They still spawn regularly. You would not recognize that they were over 16 years old just by looking at them.

 

[maroun.c]

My female maroon is approaching 10 years in my tank, well in my sump currently as I'm setting up a tank just for the maroon pair as they became very aggressive.
It started as a male till the older female died and then became female, and paired up with a male I introduced 4 years ago.