fish and old age

haron

i was given four red emperor tetra and was told they were about 6 year old. from looking on line it seems the average age they live to is around 5. heres the question over the last few weeks 2 of these have died and another seems to be heading the same way. they just get lazy and sit on the bottom then float around and die.. tested the water everything is fine also all the other fish are fine no symptoms of illness. has anyone else experience of fish dying from old age?

scwazrh

While I'm not 100% sure, I think I have lost fish to old age but they where about 4 year old.I have lake Malawi fish and originally set the tank up in 2007 , over the last 12 months I have had five of the original fish die and now only have 1 left from my original group I added.I know the water is fine as there is lots of fry in the tank at the moment so if their breeding , things must be ok with the water.Plus the fish that died where 5-6 inches in size which i have been told is about the max for this type .

fungun

6 years is a decent age alright for a tetra.

But what do you mean by you have tested everything? What have you tested for? I had a problem years ago which I eventually found out was due to copper in the water. Have you put in a polyfilter or sth to see if it filters out anything?

haron

new to the fish keeping thing by tested everything i tested all the as in ph nitrite ammonia and nitrate. didn't know there was more tests i could do. any advice and help very welcome

fungun

these are the basic ones - with polyfilters you can look at the colour it turns to check for potential metallic contaminants. Its difficult to do those checks - at the time i was lucky enough to work in a place that could do them - the copper was way over the legal drinking limit, got straight on to the county council!!!

If your 'fish tests' e.g. nitrite, nitrate, ammonia are all fine, then just check to see if the symptoms get worse when you do a water change. If Im concerned about the water but dont have any evidence of anything wrong as such I tend to chuck in a carbon filter and a polyfilter for a bit just to see if it gets any better.

On the other hand if you have other fish in the tank that are fine, it sounds like it might well just be the end of their natural life alright.

haron

all the other fish in the tank are fine. but i checked out the poly filter i think i'll definately get one just to be sure the water is prefect