What's the longest you've ever had a fish?

[jdeschene]

The longest I've ever had a fish was my beloved childhood angelfish, named (uncreatively) Angel. She (as I assumed it was female) lived for about five years. Do you have any similar stories?

[ChoclateBetta]

Carters 2.5 years old.

[aemaki09]

Not me, but my boyfriend had some sort of goldfish that lived for at minimum 10 years. not sure of the name, but his family loved him so much that his mom even tried to give the fish CPR when he was dying.
I think the longest any of my fish have lived is about 2.5-3 years, in my care, not sure of age before I had most of them.

[ChoclateBetta]

The average Betta is 6-8 months from a pet store.

[aemaki09]

Yeah,m I know that, but some of the ones I had were full grown and some where pretty small, probably like 4 months, but you never know for sure their age when you get them from a store, so I never include that when I tell someone how long my longest living ones lived for

[hannah16]

According to my friend she won a feeder goldfish from a carnival in 2002 and she still has the fish today. That's 10 yrs. He's in a 1 g bowl, fed flakes and gives water changes once every 10 days.

[callistra]

Originally Posted by hannah16

According to my friend she won a feeder goldfish from a carnival in 2002 and she still has the fish today. That's 10 yrs. He's in a 1 g bowl, fed flakes and gives water changes once every 10 days.

That's so sad :( goldfish need a 20g. Keeping them in something smaller will stunt their growth and shorten their lives.. So if he even still fits in that he's been very stunted by the water quality all these years

[hannah16]

Originally Posted by callistra

That's so sad :( goldfish need a 20g. Keeping them in something smaller will stunt their growth and shorten their lives.. So if he even still fits in that he's been very stunted by the water quality all these years

I agree. I told her this once I realized she even had a fish and she said "Well, he hasn't died yet." ... Not much I can say to that after having the fish for 10 years.

[aemaki09]

WOW! 10 years in a 1 gallon!! thats insane! I mean I understand she didnt know better, and its been 10 years, but thats a long time to have a pet, and if I had a goldfish for 10 years and someone told me that, I would be running out to get a new tank that next day just because I would feel absolutely horrible about the way I kept him originally. (NOW, this is if I didnt think to do research on care originally)

I will say that my boyfriends goldfish lived in a 10 gallon most of its life, but they did upgrade in the last few years when they started to do research about them.

[ChoclateBetta]

Originally Posted by callistra

That's so sad :( goldfish need a 20g. Keeping them in something smaller will stunt their growth and shorten their lives.. So if he even still fits in that he's been very stunted by the water quality all these years

Fancies need 30. Comets which is what you win at carnivals need 75 gallons.