Life expectancy

[davidaguiar]

Anyone know a good resource for finding out a REALISTIC life expectancy for fish? I've had my 30 G tank for just about a year now, and here's how I've fared:

Started cycling with 4 Platys. They all have done fine until just recently, when two of them died (old age?)

Next I bought 3 baby panda corys, who all died within a month (almost gave up on having fish as pets)

My next purchase was 5 Julii corys, all still alive and kicking after almost a year... Yeah!! Love those corys!

Next were 5 Red-eyed tetras, now about 7 months old. One died just recently, but the others doing well.

Most recent addition is 5 young Harlequin Rasboras, now about 1 month old and all doing well.

So what's the verdict? Am I a good fish Dad or should I have my fish keeping license revoked?

 

[Gucci_fish]

When you cycle with fish, they're subjected to days of beatings via ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. That could be how they were weakened and died.

Did these fish ''die for no reason''? Were there any symptoms of disease? Water parameters? This could be your problem.

All fish are different, hence there is a different life expectancy for each fish.

 

[Captain Hook]

With a healthy varied diet fish can live for a LONG time in aquariums. I am talking years. I have had some of my fish for probably a few years, not exactly sure.

It also depends on the age you got your fish, although usually they are pretty young. Sometimes I have fish die suddenly like that too and can't explain it. Could be anything I guess.

 

[NGerdes]

The platys probably died like Gucci said, because of the stress and damage from cycling. The panda cories could have been anything from a disease contracted at the pet store, or just been weak. This could have been anything, from being acclimated poorly to something from the pet store or a number of things. You really can't tell unless you know the water parameters or any symptoms they had at the time. The tetra could just be one of those flukes. Just injured himself in the tank, who knows. But without the water or symptoms of anykind, it really is hard to tell what it is. I bought a small pleco a little over two weeks ago that just died. I know he wasn't eating hardly at all, but don't know why. If it was something from being shipped or in my tank or what. I've retested my water about 4 times, and checked my other fish a million times and still can't figure out what caused him to not eat.

 

[TKOS]

I think that most tetras can realistically live for 5-7 years in captivity. Mine have been around for 3 years now and even beat a case of fin rot in the early days.

Not sure about platies but I have had mine for 7 months or so and they are fine.

Goldfish can live for 25 years or more if properly cared for.

The more stable you can make your tank the longer the life of the fish.

 

[kveeti]

Aquaria Central has this page on average lifespans:
http://64.191.28.50/articles/lifespan.shtml

There is also this page (mostly the same info):
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Youngstown_Lifespans.html

Unexplained premature deaths sometimes happen. Livebearers can live 3-5 years, so your platies were probably short-lived due to living through the cycle. If your corys are still fine after all this time, you can probably expect to have them around for many more years. I had 2 bronze corys, Mo & Jo, that lived with me 7-1/2 and 8-1/3 years respectively.

 

[Hound]

I have to agree with the others. You probably aren't doing anything overly wrong as to cause fish to die. Of course I'm assuming your doing proper partial water changes . That being said I'm not overly certain about most fish and maximum age. Some fish like ram cichlids you'd be looking at about 2-3 years. Tetras I believe generally live about twice that. Corys are generally fairly long lived. I've heard of peppered corys reaching 10+ years before and from what I've heard most of the cory cats live at least 6 years in an aquarium normally.