Re: apisto life spans

[IDMiamiBob <IDMiamiBob@aol.com>]

Lisa wrote:
<< Hi all,
 I would like to know what people consider to be the sure signs of old
 age in their fish.  I just lost one of my original Taeniacara candidi males
 (at about 2 yrs of age), who over the course of a couple of months began to
 lose his color,to eat less, andn then to develop a spine bend. The other
 fish in this
 tank are all fine.  Anyway, I was wondering if fish that die of "old age"
 really just become too stressed to fend off common diseases and so die, or
 if they
 succumb to diseases of old age (a cancer, for example).  Any ideas - or do
 I really just have some awful disease lurking around in this tank?
 
 As a corollary, what kinds of life spans have you all seen for your dwarfs?
 (I couldn't access the archives today to see if this has been extensively
 covered already, so apologies if it has). I think I manage to kill off most
 of mine before they get the chance to go gently into that good night.
 
 Lisa >>
If a fish that old suddenly develops a bent spine, I take that as a sign of
old age.  As for life spans in SA dwarf cichlids, it can run two to five
years.  They are lucky to reach 18 months in the wild.  

A fish's "normal" life span is affected by a number of environmental issues,
like temperature, pH, and food.  So I wouldn't panic over the fate of his
tankmates just yet.

Bob Dixon