Do you know how to keep your fish alive longer

Anyone know how to keep your fish alive longer!!

lol, i think that is the eternal question!

i don't think there is an answer for that. but keeping tanks clean and water changes, along with enough room and space, feeding them properly i would assume is the best way to help a fish reach his or her full life span.

Yeah, it depends what type of fish you have, what you feed them, tankmates, Size, Size of tank, etc.

A sure way to keep fish for longer is to keep the water cooler. Not a lot cooler but a few degrees. The fish age slower in cool water and faster in warm water. For most tropical fish you can let the temperature drop to 20C over winter and for coldwater fishes it can get down to a couple of degrees as long as the water doesn't freeze solid. Some tropical fishes will survive winter temps below 16C and quite often in the wild they actually encounter water this cold.
One point to be noted is that fish will tolerate cooler water if they are in it while the temp drops over time. If you take a fish from a warm tank and stick it in cold water it will stress and either develop a disease like whitespot, or simply die from shock.
Neons for example come from the Amazon but when the snow melts in the Andes, there is an influx of cold water and the Amazon gets cooler. Rainwater does the same thing. In an aquarium where the temp is high, say 28C, neons can die of old age after only a year or two. If they are kept cooler and given a lower temp in winter they can live for 3 or 4 years.
But by far the best way to keep your fishes alive for longer is to provide them with a clean safe habitat. Most aquarium fish die from water quality problems associated with over feeding. Then comes agression from incompatible tank mates, and disease.
Unfortunately disease is becoming a bigger problem as more pathogens are developing a resistance to many common aquarium medications. This is brought about by the improper use of medications over the past 40yrs.

wow i didn't know that

Colin_T wrote:

A sure way to keep fish for longer is to keep the water cooler. Not a lot cooler but a few degrees.

Be careful, as many fish are extra sensitive to temps in tanks. Especially fish like Puffers and Eels.

ok

Also, you can't keep coldwater fish with tropical fish (e.g. goldfish w/ plecos)