Longivity of Tangs

[hammerandy]

Hey how long will tangs live? I just lost a Purple regal tang that I had for 4 years by June of this year. No real signs of problems and water quailty is near dead perfect. Is this an old age thing. My tank is 125 gallon 125 lbs of live rock. All types of growth both hard and soft corals. The only problem I can see is that my temperature tracks around 79 to 80 degrees. This was a Mediterrian Regal also. I lost a red lip blennie after 4 years. Is this a realistic shelf life?

Randy

[OrionGirl]

Short, in my mind. Tangs can live for upwards of 15 years in the wild. Smaller fish frequently have a shorter life, and a stunted fish will have a short life indeed.

[hammerandy]

I knew that in the wild their life span is pretty broad. But in captivity it is cut pretty short. You don't know the age of a fish when you get them. This tang was about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long.
and probably 5 inches when he died. In the wild they grow 7 to 9 inches. Just wondering out there how long some of the older Reef keepers have kept a fish? (not to many older reef keepers out there on this board).

[OrionGirl]

That's seriously stunted. That will shorten the life span of the fish. The stunting is common in tanks--otherwise, the fish should live longer in an aquarium--it has no predators, any parasites are treated, food is always available. Should be idyllic.

I know people who've had tangs for around 10 years. The tang we have is at least 6 years old--we inherited him from a friend who had him for 3 years before we got him.

[karlas]

the one fs that i go to she has a 135 gall and the blue hippo in it has just celebrated its 14th birthday

heres her site and a pic of him

14yr old blue hippo (http://www.coralreeftanks.com/pages/Our_Reef_Tank_Picture.html)