Do fishes really live long?

[fishorama]

What do you mean MaloK? How is quarantine not a good intro to our hobby? Better to treat a smaller problem before spreading to other tanks & fish. I am a strong believer in QT whenever possible. & I know not everyone has that option.

I tend to have a stash of meds over the years on the off chance I might need them or leftovers from when I did. But we are in different countries with different drugs available. Some are more effective than others, not all can get them.

 

[Magnum Man]

Some bigger fish, live a long time… back before the water change thing was a common rule. I had a Red Breasted Pacu, for in the ballpark, of 10 years, the last 3-4 years in a custom 250 gallon tank… one day it knocked a weighted cover off the tank, and jumped out, when I wasn’t home… to be completely transparent, I as a little ahead of my time, and was doing “water changes” though back then, it wasn’t for the benefit of the aquariums, I vacuumed the gravel, specifically for water for our house plants… the fish benefited, though it wasn’t heavily discussed in my circles back then…

 

[fishorama]

LOL, we were a bit ahead of the water change curve too. We probably changed 10+% every couple weeks. No really big fish like you had, just CA medium sized cichlids & some others. We "aged" our water in gallon jugs all over the place. Think of all the $ we saved on dechlorinator, lol. We used UGF after a few years & thought that was the best we could do by our tanks & fish. How times have changed!!

 

[Red15]

Alright. I looked into the tb thing a little bit and the symptoms do match with my fishes specially they look similar to tb infected fishes before dying.

 

[Colin_T]

Alright. I looked into the tb thing a little bit and the symptoms do match with my fishes specially they look similar to tb infected fishes before dying.

What symptoms did you come up with that match your fish?

Most people on the internet have never dealt with or had TB confirmed in their fish so a lot of the information isn't always correct.

Mycobacteria normally cause problems to the internal organs of the fish. The bacteria grow slowly over a course of months or years (depending on temperature) and the fish act normally until the bacteria damages the organ it is growing in. Then the fish dies of organ failure within 24-48 hours.

If fish go off their food and only eat a bit instead of their normal amount, and they slowly waste away over the course of a couple of weeks, it's an internal protozoan infection, not TB.

 

[Red15]

What symptoms did you come up with that match your fish?

Most people on the internet have never dealt with or had TB confirmed in their fish so a lot of the information isn't always correct.

Mycobacteria normally cause problems to the internal organs of the fish. The bacteria grow slowly over a course of months or years (depending on temperature) and the fish act normally until the bacteria damages the organ it is growing in. Then the fish dies of organ failure within 24-48 hours.

If fish go off their food and only eat a bit instead of their normal amount, and they slowly waste away over the course of a couple of weeks, it's an internal protozoan infection, not TB.

And now, I'll look into mycobacteria. Thank you for replying!

 

[Naughts]

I have been in this hobby for five years and I've tried keeping all sorts of fishes excluding the monsters. I can't count how much money I've spent on stocking my four tanks. But the result is always the same. Fishes keep dying.
When we google or even ask the experienced fish keepers which fish is hardy and beginner friendly, they've got one answer ready that is guppies and other livebearers. But here's the truth these are the hardest fish I've found for fishkeeping. Everyone says, you won't have to bye fish ever again if you have a couple of guppies. I've had thousands of babies from livebearers. but the mothers die and in a month the babies follow. They take absolutely not time to die.
Angels on the other hand, they die too except it happens a few months later. Goldfishes-i wouldn't even start(they are not fooling me with those sparkly skin and flowy tails anymore). I've kept rosy barbs, knife fishes, zebra danios, cichlids, comets, neons, bettas(they disappointed me sooo much), crayfish, sharks, loaches. Some die in a month, some take a few.

Here's the thing. The only fishes I've finally found hardy are tetras. Red eye tetras, glow tetras-these i have been able to keep for a couple years. And I've also had success with shrimps. They just keep breeding and breeding.

I've fought a hundred of diseases with my fishes, I have treated them and I've learnt a lot. But I'm never ready to give up on those colourful expensive guppies and other beauties that i failed to keep alive.
What am i doing wrong? I've left the water for dechlorination, I've treated the water with antichlorin and other stuff people suggested, I've used aquarium salt, I've used good filters and I've acclimated before adding new fish in tank, I've used heaters and plants(plants die too, never live long), I've kept fishes after calculating the numbers and the water capacity. There must be something I'm not doing right.
I'll give you a hint. All of my fishes die looking the same. Their bellies get really thin. They do all the activities and eat as they're supposed to as i watch them get thinner day by day and anticipate when they're dying sadly. And then One day they die.
Help me crack the code please.

You have a lot of fishkeeping knowledge so I can condense the answer to 2 things.

1) Buy quality fish
2) Keep the water quality high

For number one you need to find a store you can trust, that are ethical in their purchases and sales and that quarantine fish before selling them on. You will not get this at chain stores, you need to find somewhere that has the welfare of the fish as a high priority. If you see dead/ sick fish in their tanks, walk out the door.

For number two you just need clean water. Change 50-75% of the water each week without fail. Minimise additives and medications - a quality basic dechlorinator and little else.

Good luck.

 

[Allen Kerry]

Different fishes have a different lifespan according to their care needs. I have been betta fish for a long time. According to my knowledge, Betta fish usually live about 2 to 4 years with proper care. How long do betta fish live depends on factors like water quality, tank size, and diet. Bettas kept in larger, well-maintained tanks generally live longer, while those in smaller, less stable environments may have a shorter lifespan.

 

[seangee]

@Red15 you never answered the question on your GH. The fact that you have success with tetras and shrimps may point to very soft water.
I have very soft water in my tanks and I haven't bought any tetras, shrimp or corys since well before Covid - and the tanks are all flourishing. But guppies, mollies, swords , goldfish (etc.) would not last a month in any of my tanks.
I also change 75% of my water every week.

 

[Death by Fish Tanks]

When we google or even ask the experienced fish keepers which fish is hardy and beginner friendly, they've got one answer ready that is guppies and other livebearers. But here's the truth these are the hardest fish I've found for fishkeeping. Everyone says, you won't have to bye fish ever again if you have a couple of guppies. I've had thousands of babies from livebearers. but the mothers die and in a month the babies follow. They take absolutely not time to die.
Angels on the other hand, they die too except it happens a few months later. Goldfishes-i wouldn't even start(they are not fooling me with those sparkly skin and flowy tails anymore).

Here's the thing. The only fishes I've finally found hardy are tetras. Red eye tetras, glow tetras-these i have been able to keep for a couple years. And I've also had success with shrimps. They just keep breeding and breeding.

What am i doing wrong?
I'll give you a hint. All of my fishes die looking the same. Their bellies get really thin.

A big problem with commercial fish these days is that there sold sick and, worse, overbred. Playing God has consequences. And sadly, fish(and the wallets of hobbyists) have to suffer for it.

As for the getting skinny and dying, it sounds like Wasting Disease: a parasite in the gut that siphons food and nutrients from the fish.

 

[Jinx_]

A big problem with commercial fish these days is that there sold sick and, worse, overbred.

Yeah, mainly chain stores sell fish problems. It's where I got problems from in the past. Fish were LOADED with parasites and other stuff going on too. My guppies are practically Thai, seller got his from Thailand and bred them. It's actually where you still can get some high quality fish, but only when you know what and where etc.

 

[GaryE]

My LFS guy, the nicest store owner I know, will be very pleased when he talks about his sources. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, for South American fish. I buy all my dry goods from him, but I don't buy his fish.
There are a couple of Indonesian dealers who work directly with friends, and I'll sometimes buy their fish, but only Asian species. I currently have none.
Fish farming by its nature involves crowding. It's an industrial process. For the farms, profit margins are low, and many of the southeast Asian farms have both demanding shareholders and customers who will cut throats to drive prices down. So most cut every corner they can. I find a lot of farmed fish to be shorter lived, more prone to Mycobacter (TB) infections, and often infected with strange things that could only thrive in crowding. Antibiotic misuse and hormone use are pretty standard.
So this bleak scenario gives fish that are shorter lived, especially from tb. A fish that could live 5 to 7 years easily won't get past 3, in too many cases.

We tend to blame poor breeding, but I think the problem is in the raising. These are big, impersonal operations with massive turnovers.

We want to blame the chains, and it's certain their bulk purchasing power drives farmer's prices down and makes it worse. But if the small stores are buying from the same sources, they get the same fish as the chains. They may care for them better, but.

We have some sellers in this region who only deal in sustainable wild caught fish. They're my sources. In general, they are slightly more expensive, but the fish live long and breed well. I also trust people who breed their fish themselves.

I have recently bought farmed tetras from a local store, as I like some of the common species like black neons or Pristella that no one imports from nature. I keep them away from my wild caughts. If I can breed them, the fry grow into fish I'll put in my community tanks, but the fish bought from farms are quarantined for at least 3 to 6 months, and are often never combined with wilds. If you raise the offspring carefully, as you should, most rumours of inbreeding problems don't hold up.