Watching fish age.

[Paul B]

Over the years I have aquired many fish as babies or very young and watched them grow to old age. They seem to age almost like us and some even get wrinkles. I remember one of my first percula clowns that I got when he was 1/2" long. He grew to only about 1/1/2" and got to about 14 years old. He was never sick and did even get a few wrinkles. Or it looked like that anyway.
I find that fish get more secretive also as they age. My cusk eel sometimes would swim around as a youngster but as he aged, I never saw him unless it was at night with a flashlight. He died in an accident at the age of 18.
I also got my fire clown as a tiny fish and I thought he was a red hawkfish at first. He is now about 16 and very ornery. I can't put my hand in the tank without getting bit. This biting started a couple of years ago. Of course now he (or she) is spawning so they get mean in that state anyway.
OK not really mean, but protective. He fights all day with my long nose butterfly who likes eating in the fireclown's nesting area.
This pair of watchman gobi's started off as tiny, skinny yellow fish. Then they turned into grayish brown fish that would always stay together in the front. After a few years they started to spawn and lay their eggs in the back of the tank but after they hatched, they would come back into the front. Gradually they started to stay in the back and under rocks and I can never get a full glimpse of them anymore. They are also hard to feed because I have to look for them under the rocks with a flashlight, then shoot some clams into their den. They love fresh clams.
I don't remember how old they are, maybe 10 or 12 so they have at least another decade to facinate me.
THis is one of them as a baby

Here they are about a year old, always in the front and always together

Then they got old and fat

But they still have time for each other as evidenced by her with a batch of eggs

 

[fishman1069]

Wow That is so cool, Paul! I always buy young fish also, in hopes I can care for them correctly and keep them untill they are old. Unfortunately I always come across a situation that dose not allow me to keep fish long term. Im so happy with the 4 fish I currently have and now Im moving to Florida and Im scared to take them, so Im gonna find them new homes and start over down there. Hopefully I can settle in and setup a reef that I can have for 40 years!

 

[Arati]

any new pics of the hippo? worlds cutest fish lol.

 

[Paul B]

My Hippo looks horrible. He almost died with a bunch of other fish a couple of years ago and has a real bad case of HLLE along with some funky fins.
Besides looking lousy, he seems to be in great health. But Ugly

 

[FaviaFreak]

Hey Paul what was your longest lived fish?

 

[Arati]

thats why im a huge fan of his . he has to flap those little fins so fast haha, such a funny fish

 

[Paul B]

FaviaFreek the oldest fish I had was that cusk eel or brutlyd (spelling). It was about 6" long and bright yellow. I had him for 18 years and would still have him but I killed him in an accident with quite a few old fish. My 5 year old moorish Idol and old mandarin. 5 years stinks but for a moorish Idol that is almost a record. I recently lost a pair of 13 year old hermit crabs and my fireclown is about 16 or 17, he is still with me and still spawning.

I love to watch fish age, they start out kind of cute like us with big eyes and flat faces.
This little burrfish that I collected in the Atlantic is about as large as a marble here, see how cute he is.

Here he is 2 years later which is just a teenager in burrfish life. Still cute but diferent.
I donated him to a public aquarium a few weeks ago.

 

[Paul B]

Fish must have a hard time adapting to life in a tank. A tang for instance in the sea is never alone, they are always living in a school and think as a group. When they are swimming in a school of maybe 100 individuals they all turn in unison as if of one mind, but they are not. They all have a seperate mind but they act like clones.
All of a sudden one will slightly turn, then the one will turn a little more and so on and in an instant they are all going in a new direction. Then they all at once dive to the rocks where they feed on algae and each one "lands" on a rock right next to his twin. They never bump into each other or fight. Wherever they happen to hit, thats where they feed. In a tank they don't get the opportunity to do that or interact with others of the same species. Even if you have two or three, that doesn't help that fish.
Their teeth are made for scraping the thinest growth of algae from an irregular surface, not grabbing artificial flakes or biting lettuce in a clip. They usually get used to this but are always stressed. If they had a voice I am sure we would hear a lot of screaming and crying.
Bottom dwelling fish like damsels and gobies have other concerns. We have an easier time feeding most of them but those types of fish that don't school are constantly looking for a mate. Most healthy fish fill up with eggs, even if there is no mate around. Those eggs can stay in the fish for a time but then they are re absorbed or cast into the water to feed other fish.
Developing eggs puts a large burden on a fish as eggs are mostly oil. To make eggs fish need to eat much more food than normally necessary because eggs could be 1/4 of the fishes weight and they can spawn every couple of months. The natural way to dispose of these eggs is to mate and raise the babies (or at least eat them). For fish to make eggs they must be in excellent health, much better than captive fish are and they need much richer food, flakes and pellets don't usually do it. A fish can live for decades on that type of food but it will hardly if ever produce eggs and a female fish that does not produce eggs is in far inferior condition than a spawning fish or at least a fish in breeding mode.
It must also be very stressful for the male fish who wants to protect a nesting territory of a few yards and only has a few inches. I know in my 6' long tank there is not much room for fish to swim back and forth the length of the tank due to the rockwork, but thats what my long nose butterfly wants to do. He has nothing else to do and that particular fish likes to poke their noses in holes looking for worms. On these trips which occur every 30 seconds or so he must swim past my fireclown. This fireclown is old and has been guarding a nesting spot in the same place for about 16 years.
There is always a confrontation when the butterfly passes. The clown attacks and the butterfly sticks his dorsal spines in his face.
This must be frustrating for both fish and I am sure that they don't remember one trip from the next so they don't know enough to keep out of each other's way. That reminds me of when I was a small kid walking to school.
(Uphill in the snow both ways) There was this house with a big dog that I had to walk past and the dog would always bark at me and try to jump over the fence. I was always terrified to walk there but my brain is slightly larger then a long nose butterfly so I knew to wait until the dog ran to the back of the house, then I would run past.
Fish on the other hand have a 3 second memory like a goldfish swimming around in a bowl.
"Look a castle"........"Oh Wow, what a neat castle"......"OMG, that is some cool castle"........."Who would have thought, a castle"......"Who put that castle there"

 

[Arati]

Fish on the other hand have a 3 second memory

no way they have a 3 second memory my fish remeber that i bring food and beg at the galss whenever I walk by.

I recently saw a guy demonstrate how his fish could tell when there food was in his hand. he held a beer and stood by the tank .. no reaction. then he held a can of flake and pow all the fish where ready for supper.

those fish obviously remembered that food can.

 

[Paul B]

Do you have a castle in their tank? :tongue1:

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Hi Paul
Sometimes I think the fish are watching me age.....

 

[Arati]

Just cause you let your fish loaf about. only moving to eat and fornicate, doesn't mean they aren't capable of more. hrmm makes me wish I were one of Pauls fish~




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3JFmrlgWAk

http://www.r2fishschool.com/

 

[noobzy]

Amazing pictures... thanks for sharing their story

 

[rookie07]

Thanks Paul! Good Pictures and cool stories.

 

[Paul B]

Sometimes I think the fish are watching me age.....

What do you mean by "sometimes?"

Just cause you let your fish loaf about. only moving to eat and fornicate, doesn't mean they aren't capable of more.

They are very capable, of the 20 or so fish I have 6 are texting, 4 are watching TV and the rest are taking a yoga class.

Thanks Paul! Good Pictures and cool stories

Thanks Phil. Rookie07 has a business named PS Aquatics and is actually the only company legally (and ethically) able to manufacture and sell my Zapper, now called the Majano Wand.
He also has some beautiful reef tanks.

 

[Paul B]

it's raining here now and cold so as I was looking at my tank trying to get into my fishes heads I thought I would post something, I don't exactly know what but it will come to me. I notice that my two fireclowns now are no longer breeding with each other but have two different nest sites on opposite sides of the tank. This is a problem for the other fish because each fireclown attacks any other fish that come near. My long nose butterfly has to navigate through both territories on his circumnavigation of the tank every minute or so and on each pass must confront both fish. The two clowns do not invade each other's areas but they do meet at the boundry of each ones domain and give each other dirty looks.
The hippo tang has learned to take a short cut to by pass both fishes nesting sites and has no problems. Hippo tangs are much more comfortable navigating in close quarters of rock than long nose butterflies. In the sea a hippo tang will take cover in the rocks while a long nose butterfly will try to swim away just above the rocks.
I would imagine their long nose would make it difficult to get into tight spaces, or get out anyway. Also a butterfly has more of a defense mechanism in the long sharp spines of it's dorsal fin that it thrusts in it's opponent's face and a hippo tang has an offensive weapon in the scalpel that it has just before it's tail. That is why they call them surgeon fish but we all knew that.
I also think that the clowns know about the other fishes weapons and know which fish they should not mess with. They don't seem to bother with all the other bottom dwelling fish and pay no attention to the gobies, mandarin or pipefish. I guess they consider rthose fish as sissies and no threat.
Just my observations on a rainy day

 

[Paul B]

I took this picture in Bora Bora and long nose butterflies are rather common there and they have no trouble living with the very large fish of the South Pacific. They have their niche with their long nose and can pull food from deep holes. The wild ones in the picture seem to have longer snouts than the ones in our tanks. Maybe because those fish are not collected in Bora Bora being so remote from just about everywhere. I am sure their snouts kept evolving longer to get at those elusive worms because other fish there also have long snouts to get at that food but no where near as long as these butterflies.
They don't dive in the coral as that nose is very fragile and their jaw looks as if it would break just by thinking about diving in coral. If they damage that mouth, they die. They can not eat much at one time and must forage all day. They also can not tear food into pieces like many fish can. They try by shaking their heads but those tiny teeth are practically useless for tearing and I would imagine just by the physics of their anatomy that if they shake too hard they would crack their jaw.
These types of fish along with mandarins, seahorses and pipefish need to eat at least a few times a day, preferably all day but that is not usually possable in a captive reef which is why these types of fish are considered "difficult". It is not their fault that they are difficult, but ours. They live quite well if their needs are met especially in regard to food. If we were fed half a cow once a day and were not allowed to use our hands. And it was consumed by other creatures in a matter of seconds, we would also starve,
But if that cow was cut up in tiny pieces and re plenished every few minutes, we would not have a problem.
I personally feed my fish in the morning with some live worms. That is mainly to keep the long nose healthy and many of the other fish are not up yet because they can eat more food at one seating so they get along with the last meal in the afternoon.
Then I give the tank new born brine shrimp every day.
The shrimp are for the tiny bluestripe pipefish, the clown gobies and some corals like the gorgonians. The other fish eat them but I think they think of them like M&Ms because they are just too small to supply much nutrition.
If I did not feed worms and baby shrimp, I would not be able to keep these fish long enough for them to die of old age. I would not have a fish that I was not willing to care for. The fish we keep should not have to adapt to our world but we should at least try the best we can to have the world we create for them to be as close as possable to their world. We can not give them an ocean to swim in but we can and should at least supply them with what they need and what they recognize as food.
No matter how nutritious it is, if they don't recognize it as food, they will not eat it.

 

[Elflaco112]

3 second memory? No way... Just like Arati stated about when feeding. When I grab the cup to add the home made frozen food I have for them they all bunch up in the front middle part of the tank and wait for me to bring them their food. They remember what I grab and where I put the food to feed them. lol. I would love to get my hands on that manjo wand to zap these suckers away.

 

[Paul B]

3 second memory?

The 3 second memory thing is actually a goldfish "joke".