seems like the fish that live the longest, were mistakes you bought, or a fish that keeps you from going a different direction with your tank...

[Magnum Man]

I have the 1st 2 fish I bought, when restarting my tanks a little over 3 years ago... I got them at the semi local dog groomer who has a bank of tanks... they are both flying foxes, maybe a male and female, as there has always been a big size difference... they were mostly bought as canary's for my 1st tank I started up, after they sat empty for 30 years... not very pretty, not a particularly good algae eater, super hard to catch ( as I later "tried" to move them to a different tank, several times ), they get along fine in my Hillstream tank, but many fish have come and gone over the last 3 years, but those flying foxes show no sign of slowing down... at this rate, they may out live me... I don't wish they would die, but are one of the only fish I bought on impulse, without researching ...

anyone else have a fish, you bought on impulse,, or changed directions with your tank, and have been providing a home for them, for years???

 

[Magnum Man]

borrowing from the old carpenters phrase, of " measure twice, cut once"... when it come to fish " look twice, buy once"

that could actually be good advice on buying any live animal...

 

[Back in the fold]

Oh yes . . . the fish you really should never have brought home . I have known many over the years .

 

[davros]

Cough ..pleco...cough ...

 

[Back in the fold]

Cough ..pleco...cough ...

Yes . . . . The primary one to be sure .

 

[GaryE]

My version is the pair you buy to breed, only to have one die and the other live for a decade. Ivanacara adoketa is one I have here - nasty to tankmates, rare and unwanted by anyone local since no one around here has ever heard of them.

 

[anewbie]

Well i'm happy with my flock of clown loaches; they aren't quite as nice as the kitten i had growing up; that lived to 24 years; as they can't hop into my lab and purr me to sleep; but they will live longer and i won't have to disappoint them when they bring me chipmunks and i have to politely decline to let them in the house.

 

[Innesfan]

A variation on this that I have encountered over the years is the last-fish-standing-syndrome. This occurs when a school or group of one species slowly dwindles down from a large number to just one. And that one survivor lives on...and on...and on. Which raises the question, was there unseen aggression that took out the others one-be-one over the years? If not, it's hard to explain how the survivor outlives the others by so much. I've experienced this with various characins, including Nannostomus, and a few barbs.

 

[fishorama]

I agree, Innesfan! Worse is when we get talked into adopting someone else's community fish & it's a "leftover" schooler. We were given a coworker's fish when he moved because he knew we took good care of our tanks. Poor skirt tetra, he swam a few inches 1 way then back. Pathetic old fish, we thought (hoped) wouldn't live too much longer. I can't remember him dying, we may have rehomed it when we had to move 8-10 years later. Most other the other fish were species we'd liked & mostly kept before, except for the kisser. We had to rehome it after many months of progressively worse behavior & growth.

Thankfully, when a club friend decided to get out of the hobby, his lone schooler didn't live too long. It was a leftover from a school & hung out with the 10+ rummy nose tetras he had. & also his 5 bronze corys. We had 1 fry survive but I'm down to the "baby", now adult, & another old male. I don't want more corys, I'm hoping to get loaches in that tank eventually. I feel a bit bad about that & will try to give him (them?) to another clubber that has them. But they are quite cute together...for now.

2tank & anewbie, I would love to have clown loaches again! We love them! But I'm pretty sure they'd outlive us. Is it fair to have to make them a part of our wills? Or if we have to rehome them when we can no longer take good care of our tanks? I'm 68 now...I can't imagine tanks in my 90s if I should live so long.

 

[Back in the fold]

A variation on this that I have encountered over the years is the last-fish-standing-syndrome. This occurs when a school or group of one species slowly dwindles down from a large number to just one. And that one survivor lives on...and on...and on. Which raises the question, was there unseen aggression that took out the others one-be-one over the years? If not, it's hard to explain how the survivor outlives the others by so much. I've experienced this with various characins, including Nannostomus, and a few barbs.

Had that exact thing happen to me years ago with Glowlight Tetras . That one last Glowlight lived for over five years .

 

[GaryE]

I wonder about that hidden aggression thing. I only started having cardinals live very long lives when I started using large tanks and large groups with them. The problem is I was also becoming a more skilled aquarist when I got the larger tanks. So cause and effect becomes the question.
Lone survivors and "leftovers" raise a lot of questions. I hold that shoalers should be in shoals, and that being alive is more than breathing. Fish are social animals, but social often means hierarchies exist, and hierarchies are killers. The endless drama of being a fish in a small tank seems different from what happens in a large tank and a large group where things get spread around. When I worked in small companies, individual bosses could make your working life miserable. In large companies, they didn't even know your name and you just got your work done with different stress levels. Maybe it's similar for fish?
I used to keep killies in pairs, in 3.5 and 5.5 gallon tanks. It was good for breeding them. In time, I moved to 10 gallon tanks. My reason was work - they gave me a little more time between water changes if my work schedule got crazy. It often did.
I discovered I had way fewer lone fish with the 10s - the old one partner died effect slowed down, and the fish lived much longer. My killies aren't annuals - they live short lives but of a few years. Now, I find they live longer in slightly larger tanks, and if I had the space and the budget, I would use 20 gallon tanks for them.
I just got offered a pair of someone's Aphyosemion exiguum. They are physical wrecks of fish, but I may accept them. He uses 2.5 gallon tanks for these tiny fish, and maybe I can bring them around and coax another generation out of them if they are in their own tanks for a bit, with live food. It's interesting (to me) that my first thought when I got the pictures was that they needed to be apart if they were to have a chance.

That's what fits with the thread topic, I think.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My oldest and longest wih me fish were zebra plecos and clown loaches. When I was down to 2 zebras that I estimated were over 20 years old and my last two juvie offspring, I was able to send them to fishorama to lie out their lives. I did not want to dedicate a tank for them as I needed it for other fish and she was kind enough to take them. I got the oldest one as a part of a proven breeding group I acquired on 2006. It is still alive today, but not in one of my tanks

As for clowns I have one over 20 years old now and lost my biggest a few years back at close to 20. They are still mu favorite fish and I am trying to figure out a way to continue keeping them. They are in 1 50 which requires I use a 3 step ladder to work on/in the tank. I know the longer I have them in this tank the greater the odds I will fall of that ladder. Time is not on my side. The only way I can not have to let them go is if I can get somebody to modify the stand no holding the empty 125 so it is much shorter. I have to sell the 125 first. I am guessing it will cost me a few $100 to pay somebody to do things correctly. I built the stands for both tanks years ago and in place.

The 150 also holds six redline barbs. One of them was the lone survivor of the ones I got over 7 years ago. Despite them all being adults, the lone survivor is still clearly larger than the others.

I got my breeding gorup of WC L173 as adults in Oct. 2015. They had to be 4 -5 years old then. They are still spawning today but nowhere near as prolifically as when younger. I got it in late 2017 as part of a box of 50. I shared them with somebody else who did the importing and she took 15 and I took 35. I sold close to 30 at an NEC weekend event and kept the ones which did not sell for myself. Ihave had this species all told to 20 years encompassing 3 purchases. I bought 4 recently on Aquabid and only one siurvived, one was a DOA. The lone survivor is in a planted Q tank with some corys and amanos bought at the same time. If it lasts it will join the others in the 150.

 

[angiemike6]

I started my 40 gallon tank 30 years ago, and nearly gave up when I started losing control of the algae. My local aquatic centre suggested I get a common plec, but didn't tell me how large they got. So I took their advice, and it kept me in the hobby because the algae just disappeared. That plec got to about 20 inches long, and although was really too big for my tank seemed content in it, and I did not have the heart to get rid of it. It lasted 29 years.