The life of fish.

[chefbigdav]

I was wondering about keeping fish in a healthy tank , and the life of my fish and the rate of replacing them. This is mt first attempt of doing a salt water fish , my experiance with fish has only been fresh water. I seem to replace fish every 3 months. The fish i have are damsels only and i am not sure what the life is on these types but was wanting some feed back and wondering if i should try different kind. The cost is not the issue at hand but was wanting to know if this was the norm with salt water fish.
I thought damsels would be hardy enough to keep for awhile.

[BangkokMatt]

Damsels are very hardy and should last much longer than 3 months. I would look at other things things such as parameters, feeding etc which caused the death of your fish. Good luck this time !

[Monstrigity]

3 months is certainly not the normal life span for any ornamental marine fish. I am not 100% sure what the average expected life span is for a damsel in captivity, but clown fish are from the damsel family and many people have kept them alive for decades. I would think that a damsel should live at least 5 years even in less than optimal conditions. If they are dying on you every 3 months there is some aspect of your husbandry that is off. I would look first to water quality, then to disease, or to nutrition. One of these is most likely the cause of death of these animals, as is the case with most fish losses. I would start by doing a full test of your water and reporting the results on this forum. Info on your system would be useful also. The more info you provide the easier it will be for someone to help you figure out what is going on in your system.

[DamnPepShrimp]

I had my yellow tail damsel for over a year and a half, just recently gave him away because I wanted a peaceful reef, not an aggressive FOWLR anymore. They are scrappy and hardy, it is nearly impossible to kill them. Something isn't right, check all your parameters.

[CarlC]

IMO proper diet and acclimation to captivity is a key to a long captive life. A good quarantine system is indispensable in the acclimation process.

Carl

[LisaD]

How long have you had the tank set up? Are you certain it has cycled? What kind of filtration are you using, and do you have live rock?

Once established, many fish can live a long time with proper diet and environment. I've had my zebra moray about 6 or 7 years - I don't remember exactly when I got it, but I bought it from Flying Fish Express. (Anyone remember them?) I also had a royal gramma and serpent star over 7 years, until my then-toddler unplugged the power strip for the tank, and I didn't notice.

[jda]

I have a pair of YTB damsels since 1998. They have been spawning since 2001 or so. They can live a long time.