Hi!Not sure if this has been done before but I was curious about how old some of our fish can get. Speaking for myself, I have a Blue Tang I purchased at my LFS 9 years ago. She was maybe a little bigger than a quarter. She's doing great and lives in a 175g bowfront FOWLR tank with a 55g sump. She is much more skittish than her tank mates which include a Yellow, Naso and Scopus Tang with a File fish, and Koran Angel along with some bottom dwellers like a Scooter Blenny and a Watchman Goby. Her hidey hole is pretty huge because she has gotten rather large over the years and even after all this time, she still bolts for it when I walk up to the tank. And NO her name is not Dory but everyone and I mean EVERYONE calls her that... So again, I was just curious how some old other fish were and seeing a pic would great if you choose to post one.
@Dr. Reef @HumbleFish thoughts? I’m thinking May just be old age at 33 yearsHi!
I know this is not quite on topic but
I'm new to this forum and need some thoughts.
My clown has been with me about 33 years and has just recently stopped eating.
He has always eagerly accepted frozen plankton but one day several weeks ago he just stopped eating.
He also enjoyed hunting the copepods of which there are plenty.
I feel he must be eating something to still be alive, but I have not witnessed it.
Needless to say, he is visibly getting thinner and more feeble.
He exhibits feeding behavior but ignores the food and copepods altogether.
Water quality is fine.
I've tried everything I can get my hands on even foods he has never accepted before, various frozen, freeze dried and even pellets.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing this.I've seen this before with old fish in my systems. A good example is this flame hawk I lost last year after 16-17 years. In the pictures it's back has become very thin showing the outline of it's skull where it's head ends and back begins. Best way I can think of to describe old fish is they just start looking "kinda ratty" like an old cat or dog and don't eat well and may look like that for months just hanging on. There may be multiple issues but and some may be treatable but there's not much to do about old age. (FWIW 30 years is how long some wild clowns may live.)
View attachment 32373459View attachment 32373460
Thank you for your response.normally when a fish stop eating there is a reason behind it. either parasite or irritation or stress etc. Are there any other tankmates? Other fish acting any differently? Anything new added to the tank recently in last 1-2 months?
Also the 150 they were in was not drilled, started with a canister filter first year then took it out and was self sustaning with only a hang on skimmer and a aquaclear 110 with just carbon in it till the crash last week, set it up in dec of 09I had a flame angel that was 10 years, blue regal 10, serpent star 12, sailfin 13, sadly last week my tank crashed after 13 years, lost everything,, starting over with a 250 gal, never give up
Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the new tank.last week my tank crashed after 13 years, lost everything