What is the hardiest fish?

[Deleted member 149562]

To try and equate how a fish can or cannot survive in any condition is highly emotive and debateable.

Bloodline, breeding conditions, overall health & welfare from fry onwards all have a bearing on the survivability of any given fish, regardless of species.

You can pluck any species out of the air as often as you want, but no two fish of that species will behave or live the same way or have the same longevity of life or be more or less prone to illness and disease.

Any fish that has suffered a bad start in life through poor breeding practice and/or poor husbandry will always face an uphill battle in its health and lifespan

And that is long before a fishkeeper actually buys that fish and takes it home.

Now you add in potentially inexperienced or under educated ownership of that fish after its been through all the potential trials and tribulations from fry to being sold to a new owner and the chances of that fish dying early multiplies endlessly.

I do not think there is such as a thing as "the hardiest fish", there are too many variables to consider in the suppliers, breeder and owner.

You can take the very best care of fish, make sure they are always in the best water chemistry and fed the very best food.....and they still might die sooner than expected by virtue of poor breeding, interbreeding, poor conditions when in transportation to supplier and just plain bad husbandry by the breeder and/or supplier.

Thirty, forty, fifty years ago...absolutely you could pretty much guarantee hardiness. But that was before the mass production and mass experimentation to get brighter colours etc started.

So no, I do not believe any one fish is hardier than another.

 

[Byron]

I agree with those who have said that no fish is hardiest. Not providing a close resemblance to the fish's habitat is harming the fish. It may not be evident, but it is. You can keep a dog alive in a steel cage with no exercise, but is the dog healthy?...No. It is the same for fish as it is for any animal including humans. The only way to be reasonably confident that we are maintaining a fish properly is to understand its needs from the habitat and provide those needs. Taking two zebra danios...one kept in a small tank alone, say a five gallon, will not be as "normal" as a group of ten kept in the proper sized and aquascaped tank. There is no "hardy" fish as such; each must be kept in the proper conditions or they should not be kept.

 

[Wills]

I think an interesting take on whats being asked here isnt hardiness but actually luck.

You ask what the hardiest fish is and many will say the most common species, and the reason for that is that the bigger the volume of fish sold means the bigger the chance of those fish being kept sub-par and surviving, then the owner gets to tell the tale. Certain species are not hardy or weak, some of those fish are just lucky that they can survive when dozens (if not hundreds) of their relatives die, but if 100 of 10,000 Goldfish survive a bowl for a year or two they get this reputation from 100 people, where as if 1 of 1,000 Neons survive its the same kind of luck but no word of mouth or normalisation that they are 'hardy' the Goldfish are just sold in greater numbers.

On a more positive note, lets inject an interesting fact about Zebra Danios. They can regenerate their heart cells, which is unique among them and they are being researched by cardiologists to see if their genes can be used in human medicines to help people with heart disease

But in short - no such thing as hardiness, just luck.

 

[Guyb93]

To be fair nemo was a hard little fish

 

[BrianK]

I take hardiness as which species can survive in the greatest range of parameters. I would say guppies and plain comet-type goldfish.

 

[B0B]

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Another way to look at this is what fish , of the fish listed , have you had live the longest . It has been noted that fish should not be subjected to poor conditions and I don't think anyone does that on purpose. Of all the fish listed Neon Tetras seem to fizzle out the fastest. All the others do well with reasonable care. And also, some fish live a really long time and some have very short lifespans. Somebody unfamiliar with that could equate that with hardiness or lack of. I once had three Blue Gourami's that were rivaling Methuselah for longevity but that was probably a fluke.

look, all it is is hardy, what fish can live in the largest range of conditions, hows that, and yes people have done this, like i beleive there is a full thing on reddit dedicated to it, also its not life spam its what fish can live in the largest range of conditions ignoring the fact that the mollys can live in salt water

 

[B0B]

I take hardiness as which species can survive in the greatest range of parameters. I would say guppies and plain comet-type goldfish.

thankyou, yes thats exactly what i meant, great answer, good job mate

 

[B0B]

To be fair nemo was a hard little fish

yeah, they are very hardy, ive owned one before and i love them, they are just amazing

 

[WhistlingBadger]

So when you talk about hardiness, you're really talking about adaptability. Some fish can thrive in a wide variety of conditions. Others need very specific hardness, pH, etc. Those latter are generally considered the more difficult fish, although of course they are very easy if you happen to have the right habitat for them. The more adaptable fish tend to be highly domesticated (goldfish or Betta splendens), come from highly changeable wild environments (panda garra, some killifish), and/or occur over a very wide geographic range. In aquariums, as in nature, they can take whatever the environment throws at them. Within reason.

I think the reason so many object to the word "hardy" is that it implies fish that can survive in terrible conditions. Zebra danios can tolerate dirty water for a while. The labyrinth fish can do OK in low oxygen environments. That sort of thing. But in modern fish keeping, there's generally no excuse for keeping fish in those conditions.

In my experience: Simple goldfish, zebra danios, giant danios, dwarf gouramis (if you're fortunate enough to get healthy ones), panda garra, diamond tetras, and turquoise rainbowfish are all very adaptable fish that can thrive in a wide range of temperatures, hardness levels, etc.

Then there are the fish from specialized environments that would kill most fish. For sheer toughness, it's hard to beat the pupfish and the plains killifish.

 

[B0B]

t

So when you talk about hardiness, you're really talking about adaptability. Some fish can thrive in a wide variety of conditions. Others need very specific hardness, pH, etc. Those latter are generally considered the more difficult fish, although of course they are very easy if you happen to have the right habitat for them. The more adaptable fish tend to be highly domesticated (goldfish or Betta splendens), come from highly changeable wild environments (panda garra, some killifish), and/or occur over a very wide geographic range. In aquariums, as in nature, they can take whatever the environment throws at them. Within reason.

I think the reason so many object to the word "hardy" is that it implies fish that can survive in terrible conditions. Zebra danios can tolerate dirty water for a while. The labyrinth fish can do OK in low oxygen environments. That sort of thing. But in modern fish keeping, there's generally no excuse for keeping fish in those conditions.

In my experience: Simple goldfish, zebra danios, giant danios, dwarf gouramis (if you're fortunate enough to get healthy ones), panda garra, diamond tetras, and turquoise rainbowfish are all very adaptable fish that can thrive in a wide range of temperatures, hardness levels, etc.

Then there are the fish from specialized environments that would kill most fish. For sheer toughness, it's hard to beat the pupfish and the plains killifish.

thanks for the reply although im more looking at those percific fish as they are the most common in the hobby and if a new guy walked up, which would he have the most success with

 

[itiwhetu]

t

thanks for the reply although im more looking at those percific fish as they are the most common in the hobby and if a new guy walked up, which would he have the most success with

I don't think you have chosen the most common fish nor the hardiest that are out there, I think your survey is flawed from the start, that is why I won't vote on it.

 

[B0B]

ok sure, but like i dont mind if people dont vote, to be honest its for a school assignment, and for primary data, i made a poll although i completely messed up the question and i made this question only because it was the only one i could think of that met the criteria, i have to make an inforgraphic and to compare and adjust data sheets i can use the data from the votes as well as the basic data like ph temp ect so i can ake graphs. if you dont want to vote no stress but ofr your peice of mind, it really isnt anything special, please dont like go over and just question every little detail like those above as it really sucks, i gotta go through and see if i can answer questions, just so i can get results for an IT sat, plus i dont really need the data as ive already got what i need. so well thanks for the reply and taking the time to look at the question

 

[itiwhetu]

ok sure, but like i dont mind if people dont vote, to be honest its for a school assignment, and for primary data, i made a poll although i completely messed up the question and i made this question only because it was the only one i could think of that met the criteria, i have to make an inforgraphic and to compare and adjust data sheets i can use the data from the votes as well as the basic data like ph temp ect so i can ake graphs. if you dont want to vote no stress but ofr your peice of mind, it really isnt anything special, please dont like go over and just question every little detail like those above as it really sucks, i gotta go through and see if i can answer questions, just so i can get results for an IT sat, plus i dont really need the data as ive already got what i need. so well thanks for the reply and taking the time to look at the question

Just make it up, nobody will ever know. The problem here is we are a pack of know it all's.

 

[B0B]

Just make it up, nobody will ever know. The problem here is we are a pack of know it all's.

i get it, im like that as well, but i showed the teacher the website, and guilt would not let me do so. but yeah im a know it all as well, and just like you guys, if i get the chance to talk about fish, i always take the oppurtunity

 

[Deleted member 149562]

i get it, im like that as well, but i showed the teacher the website, and guilt would not let me do so. but yeah im a know it all as well, and just like you guys, if i get the chance to talk about fish, i always take the oppurtunity

Asking questions and setting polls will always throw up more questions...that's life.

Just cos we have differing opinions based on (in most cases here) several decades of fishkeeping experience does not make your own opinion incorrect.

The definition of hardy in fish has so many variations and variables....it truly is not a simple question to answer cos there truly is no single answer to that question.

If you had asked the question about the hardiest fish when I started fishkeeping over 40 years ago, I could give a reasonably definitive answer

But that is not the case now and it never will be anymore.

Your school project would be better and potentially more educational to those who you present it to if you were to chart the changes made in the way that fish are produced for the home aquarium market, how breeding standards have dropped to suit the mass market and how that in turn has frequently ruined bloodlines and made fish that were hardy more prone to serious health issues and shortened life expectancy.

It is all too easy thesedays to reach for a medicine cabinet of stuff to put in your aquarium instead of researching and going with water changes first and making sure the water chemistry is not at fault and learning how to maintain an aquarium properly.

Look at it from a human point of view...bombard the body with antibiotics and the disease becomes immune to those antibiotics over time and what was a survivable disease 40 years ago is a flat out killer now.

If you want to do a project about the hardiness of fish, take it deeper than just specific species...find out about the way they are bred, how they are kept on the fish farms, how they are transported to suppliers, what chemicals and medications are used in that entire process cos it all matters in the search for hardiness and longevity of life in the fish that you buy for your home aquarium.

Study and research the entire picture, not just the end product.