Do fishes really live long?

[Red15]

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.

 

[GaryE]

Ah, the code...

I have long lived fish, and 2 days ago, I visited a guy who had many of the same individual fish that were there when I visited ten years ago. I'll suggest some tricks.

1. After you calculate numbers, and come up with say 20 fish for your tank, look at the number, smile sadly and cut it in half. Keep 10, Maybe 12-15 at most. No calculation is correct, and all are oriented to let you keep as many fish as you can. Quality, not quantity.

2. Avoid guppies. Goldfish are outdoor fish that should not be in tanks, and if they are, at 30 gallons per fish.

3. Here is the key I share with my friend who has the older fish. We both do water changes every single week, without fail. I have a little whiteboard I mark my 30-40 percent water changes on as time runs away and you can be at 2 weeks before you know it. The fish know it at a week.

4. Feed lightly.

Know your water. Find out and share your water hardness and pH/ It has an enormous effect on what fish should be in your tank. We can help there.

Get to know sites like Seriously Fish, and try to read up on the needs of every fish before you buy it. You made a fundamental slip in your title. We all have to stop looking at how to keep "fish" and start looking at species or groups. How you keep livebearers can be different from how you keep tetras, how you keep rabbits different from dogs, even if they are both mammals.

Based on what you've learned make sure all your fish need the same temperature, and don't overheat.

I'm sure someone will soon post about worms, because your fish thin out. Depending on where in the world you are, you could get praziquantel based meds to dose for tapeworm types, or meds if you've seen Camallanus nematodes sticking out the butts of thin fish. Deworming is easy.

But for me, doing water changes and choosing fish that like your water are steps on and two. Then stocking lightly, feeding lightly and as an added thing, getting live plants in there really help. Most small tetras should live more than 5 years.

 

[anewbie]

Dwarf cichild can live 3 to 5 years; but no they will not live forever. Cory can live 10 or 15 years but it is not common; though i admit my group is only living about 5 years. However over stocking or 'bad' water and 9 months isn't uncommon. Over-feeding and over-stocking are probably leading contributor along with folks who insist hard water is fine for soft water fishes and vice versa. iF your nitrate creeps up you are over-stocking. It should stay well below 5.

 

[Red15]

Thank you so much for replying. I don't think it's overstocking or overfeeding. Because for the last six months, I've had only 10 tetras in my 40 gallon tank. Before that, i had two gold fishes. And well, you know as I've said, I'm trying.
As for overfeeding, I learnt the hard way by the second year of my fish keeping that I had been feeding them wrong and reducing the amount of food magically gave the fishes a few more months of life. And so I really try not to overfeed them. Sometimes( one time each week) i add dried worms and other nutritions in their diet-anything for them.
All i want is to give them a happy, healthy life.
I really hope someday I'm gonna be there like you guys have been.

 

[MaloK]

I think Gary sums it all, for me the first point is really choosing fish that like your water or be able to provide that.

The rest mainly comes from experience... And many times by unknown/hidden predispositions one may have.

I always was good with goldfishes, I can make them grow enormous beautiful sparkling with long happy lives.

And with all the care I can give, I will only make nearly any tetras life miserable. I never understood why, they never lived normal life with me, On the other hand I had no problems with catfishes and gouramies living long and breeding madly in the same tank.

 

[BrianK]

if all the fish get skinny and die, you might have TB in the tank.

 

[anewbie]

Do you know if your water is soft or hard ?

 

[Red15]

Do you know if your water is soft or hard ?

I do. It's hard. I get glass stains all the times.

 

[Colin_T]

Guppies and common livebearers (mollies, swordtails, platies) used to be good beginner fishes about 50 years ago. Since then they have become inbred and weak. they are also riddled with intestinal worms and regularly carry external protozoa and bacteria that can kill them within days to weeks of you getting them. One of the things happening now is breeders are crossing Endler's livebearers with guppies to make guppies stronger.

Any common fish will probably be inbred and the more inbred they are, the weaker they are.

Angelfish, gouramis, Bettas, neon tetras, and any bread and butter fish will have more issues than wild caught fishes or fishes that aren't as badly inbred and screwed up by the fish farmers. A lot of common fish are also infected with Fish Tuberculosis (Mycobacteria) and this will significantly shorten a fish's lifespan.

If you want guppies or other common livebearers, either buy them from a local breeder or put them in a quarantine tank for a month and deworm them, treat them for gill flukes, and add some salt to kill external protozoa. Then hope they are reasonable quality.

The following link has information about deworming fish and also internal protozoan infections that cause fish to lose weight over a couple of weeks before dying. You should deworm any new fish you get. It's safe and helps the fish live longer.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

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What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

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You should look at the fish in the shop tanks before you buy any. If any fish in a tank has clamped fins; cream, white or grey patches or film over it; red lines in the tail or fins; is breathing rapidly; has red patches on the body or fins; or if there's a dead fish in the tank, avoid getting anything from that tank because everything mentioned is a potential disease.

As a general rule, most fish will not live a full life due to the fish farms in Asia selling diseased fish. If you get wild caught stock that hasn't been in a pet shop or an importer or exporter's facility, you will probably have the fish for a lot longer due to the lack of diseases.

 

[Jinx_]

if all the fish get skinny and die, you might have TB in the tank.

I heard that actual fish TB is rare, and it's often worms.

 

[Red15]

Guppies and common livebearers (mollies, swordtails, platies) used to be good beginner fishes about 50 years ago. Since then they have become inbred and weak. they are also riddled with intestinal worms and regularly carry external protozoa and bacteria that can kill them within days to weeks of you getting them. One of the things happening now is breeders are crossing Endler's livebearers with guppies to make guppies stronger.

Any common fish will probably be inbred and the more inbred they are, the weaker they are.

Angelfish, gouramis, Bettas, neon tetras, and any bread and butter fish will have more issues than wild caught fishes or fishes that aren't as badly inbred and screwed up by the fish farmers. A lot of common fish are also infected with Fish Tuberculosis (Mycobacteria) and this will significantly shorten a fish's lifespan.

If you want guppies or other common livebearers, either buy them from a local breeder or put them in a quarantine tank for a month and deworm them, treat them for gill flukes, and add some salt to kill external protozoa. Then hope they are reasonable quality.

The following link has information about deworming fish and also internal protozoan infections that cause fish to lose weight over a couple of weeks before dying. You should deworm any new fish you get. It's safe and helps the fish live longer.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

--------------------

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

--------------------

You should look at the fish in the shop tanks before you buy any. If any fish in a tank has clamped fins; cream, white or grey patches or film over it; red lines in the tail or fins; is breathing rapidly; has red patches on the body or fins; or if there's a dead fish in the tank, avoid getting anything from that tank because everything mentioned is a potential disease.

As a general rule, most fish will not live a full life due to the fish farms in Asia selling diseased fish. If you get wild caught stock that hasn't been in a pet shop or an importer or exporter's facility, you will probably have the fish for a lot longer due to the lack of diseases.

Thank you so much for all of your support. This will really help me determine where this is going wrong. I think I'll look more into the theory of keeping fishes that will go well with the water supply. This i have never done. And I'm about to do it.

 

[Colin_T]

I heard that actual fish TB is rare, and it's often worms.

Fish TB (Mycobacteria) is very common now thanks to various fish farms in Asia sending out infected fish. Mycobacteria is found in virtually every pet shop, importer and exporter around the world.

Most fish do die from other causes before TB kills them but many die from TB.
Dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and rainbowfish are commonly infected with Fish TB, but so are guppies and lots of other fish.

 

[Jinx_]

Fish TB (Mycobacteria) is very common now thanks to various fish farms in Asia sending out infected fish. Mycobacteria is found in virtually every pet shop, importer and exporter around the world.

Most fish do die from other causes before TB kills them but many die from TB.
Dwarf gouramis (Colisa lalius) and rainbowfish are commonly infected with Fish TB, but so are guppies and lots of other fish.

You serious? Back when I had my fish that wasn't a thing, and I'm referring to diseased fish being sent out. Sheesh that is tragic to hear Guess I might not be getting anymore fish then xD

 

[Colin_T]

The fish farmers don't care if a fish dies 6 months after they sell it. It means they can sell more. The more fish they sell, the more money they make.

Fish have no rights and most fish farmers don't care if their fish have intestinal worms, external protozoan infections, Columnaris or TB. As long as the fish looks ok when they send it to the exporter, and they get paid, they don't care.

Most fish from Asian fish farms have intestinal worms. Most fish from fish farms have external protozoan infections due to the heavily stocked ponds and dirty environment. And due to fish like dwarf gouramis being sent out with TB, well that is everywhere now and there's no way to stop it or the breeders selling infected fish.

 

[Jinx_]

Yup, money more important than an animals wellbeing. So sad..