Tell me your clown longevity stories!

[BonsaiNut]

This came up in another thread, but I thought it deserved its own. It would be great to hear stories of clown longevity in captivity. I know some of you breeders have some OLD clowns. Who has the oldest?

 

[NirvanaFan]

Mine aren't that old, but I'll start. My oldest pair of ocellaris are 5 years old.

 

[wheelspin]

my 3 clowns are around 6 years old...
My lil b/w that you can see in my thread was the one that taught me never to have an open aquarium. I think I just had him a couple weeks and found him in the floor one night. I freaked out, had no idea how long he had been there. Apparently he is a tough little guy.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I guess my oldest pair may still be alive out there somewhere

I had a pair of orange skunks that I had for two years back in '92. They were wild caught so I have no idea how old they were when I got them. They were such terrors in my community tank that after two years I gave them to a breeder. The breeder kept them for another four years but was having trouble with the fry - they were harder for him than his perculas - so he passed them on to another breeder. The last we heard from the second breeder (in '04?) they were still alive and spawning regularly...

That would make something like 12 or 13 years - but if I can track the other breeder down they might be 20 years at this point...

 

[jdieck]

I got my false percula pair nine years ago and they were already adults. They still spawn evey month during Spring and Summer.

 

[davocean]

I saw someone post once that had their clowns like 30 years.
Tank wasn't much to look at, but that was longest I heard of from memory so far.

 

[sneeyatch]

A friend of mine had a perc pair that were in their mid-teens somewhere. He acquired them after his dad got out of the hobby many years ago. I had a maroon clown pair that was 6 years old that I sold a year ago and they're still doing very well from what I hear. I just picked up a breeding pair of maroons a couple of weeks ago that a lady had for over 5 years from what she told me.

 

[Banff]

I have a pair of 10 yr old percs.

 

[WDLV]

I saw someone post once that had their clowns like 30 years.
Tank wasn't much to look at, but that was longest I heard of from memory so far.

I think that might have been "Harold and Maude." They had been in captivity for like 25 years last I checked and that was several years ago.

I know Mike Thielle has had his female A. thiellei (pictured in Fautin and Allen's book) for 16+ years and she's still going.

I took a pair of Ocellaris clowns off a veterinarian who was shutting down his tanks. They were 10 years old at the time. I lost the male after about 2 years and sold the female two years later. She should be 15 years old now if the buyer still has her.

I had a pair of A. leucokranos for about 6 years and 5 years before selling them.

Clowns can live 2-3 times the life span of the average dog in captivity if given only mediocre conditions but given that newbies make mistakes and accidents happen, I would imagine the avarage life expectancy is probably about 5 years.

These guys were about 10 years old when I sold them.

 

[Tofumushrooman]

I bought my first 2 occi's in 96 as juvies, still going strong today :beer:

 

[MrKite24]

I bought a pair of mis-barred marron clownfish 10 years ago. One died a few weeks after I got them. It was looking really skinny and unhealthy when I got it home. The other is still with me and has already happy with another maroon clown I bought last year. The funny thing is that I got the pair for $20 back then because they were considered a "defect". Those would probably go for much more now with all the crazy clownfish designs out there.

 

[vaporize]

Possbility 25+ years

Bought as a spawning pair back at those days.

Proven in tank for 21 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V1GEeCtx2U

The female died the male still living (and spawning)

 

[trueblackpercula]

i gad a pair of false percs for 14 years