My kuhlis have gone to that big fishbowl in the sky

I have one black kulhi right now that I bought when I first re-started my 20 gallon 3 and a half years ago. I was a biiiiiig newbie then and I'm sure the nitrates were horrendous. He lived in there for about a year and I then moved him to a 30 gallon Malawi tank I bought when my interest will started to kick in. I had thought he was long dead when a year after that I moved all of the fish in there to a 20L below and started converting that tank for discus. During this time I was using a D.I. resin filter that required really cold water to help with the purity. I found him about a week later after he went through temps probably down to 55 F and massive pH swings from 8.2 to 6.5 until it leveled off at 7.4. I felt really bad so I put him in the 20L down below where he was until I took that tank down this year. I had again (you think I'd learn this time) thought he was dead and I couldn't get to the tank to take it down (the tangs in there had been moved out awhile ago) so it just sat there stagnant. I finally took it down about a month later after I had turned off the heat and air and stopped feeding. Lo and behold I found the poor little guy. He was a little thin, but seemed fine, so I moved him back up to the 30 where he now resides and is a very active eater. So I've had mine for almost 3 1/2 years and have sent him to hell and back twice. I love that little guy. That's the longest I've ever kept something alive.

7 years is a pretty good run for kuhlis. Average life span is about 3-5 years.

I had a group of about 6 that I had for 5-6 years till they died one by one. I to, was pretty bummed out till I learned their life span is about 5 years. I figuered I gave them a pretty good life and so bought some more.