You can tell the fishs age by ..........

[Tropicalfishfn]

You can tell a fishes age by looking at there gills somthing like that i forgot waht it was but i was amazed

 

[Jamnog]

its much easyer to time how long they have been alive for.

 

[Tropicalfishfn]

yes that is true.

 

[BIANCA]

i have learned absolutely nothing from this post.

 

[Jamnog]

ok then how about each fish will grow to different sizes depending on breed some will change colour there is no hard and fast rule to know how old a fish is unless it is on a speicies by speicies thing. its allways usefull to look up the fish in question to get its stats and then make an educated guess. for instance some goldfish live 10 years and get to be 15 cm (this is only an example) so if its 10 cm i would guess it was maybee 7 years old. firemouths get more colourfull as they reach adulthood... and so on why do you want to know how old ure fish are?

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

How about counting the rings? Or does that only work for trees?

 

[AqUaDoc]

I guess being a biologist I should answer this question. Yes, you can age fish by examining a scale from the fish, provided the fish has scales. Each scale has circuli, which are calcified and concentric rings that form throught the fishes life. In the wild, fish are exposed to seasonal differences in temperature. Since fish are ectothermic (metabolism is slowed or increased by temperature), when they are exposed to colder temperatures, their growth slows, and these circuli begin to bunch together: a bunch of circuli crammed together is called an annulus. Typically, these annuli can be used to determine each year in the fishes life, but only if the fish is in a climate that has a winter. Unfortunately, because aquarium fish are usually exposed to a constant temperature, the circuli are usually equally spaced, and never bunch together. So, after a long story, I submit that aging aquarium fish can not be done by conventional methods. sorry!

aqUaDoc

 

[Tropicalfishfn]

Tomas your a genious thats what i was thiking about and thank you all and that one person who learnedf nothing. i am so proud of you