What is the longest you have kept a fish and how big did the fish get?
 

I know some SW fish can live for years and get quite big over time, so I'm curious as to what is the longest time anyone has kept a fish for and how big did the fish get, and what type of fish it is/was.

As a teenager, I had a juvenile Synodontis Angelicus that lived for 12 yrs and only died because of holiday-tank-itus ie. relatives looking after my fish tank making big mistakes :(

He was about 2 inches when I got him & grew to over 8 inches.

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I had a yellow tailed damsel for nearly 13 years. Needless to say, it didn't get very big.

Had a Texas Cichlid for almost 6yrs. He went from 1" to 6"+ and bit me several times...My saltwater is only 7mo old.

I had a Coral Beauty for 6 years, and currently have had a Flame Angel for 6 years. Both of them I got at aournd 2 inches, and never seemed to grow. My Bicolor Angel is about 5 years old, and is slightly larger, and has never seemed to grow either.

I caught my white seabream ( Sparidae - Acanthopagrus australis ) which was only finger nail sized 3 years ago, now it grows up to 10" in length

My SW tank is only 5 months old. I had 2 Tiger Oscars for 7 years. They were about 11" and nice and fat. They would splash water all over me at feeding time.

My oldest is a false percula, she's about 2 yrs old and so is my tank, she's grown from about 1 1/2" to 3 1/2". I bought her with her mate which jumped about 1 yr ago (probably sick of being nagged by the wife! :lol:) but has since remarried :mrgreen:

ive had a few groupers and a snapper go from 2-3" to over 12" in less than 2 years then just maintain that size.
then thiers buddy who i almost bought as a 4" grouper when i got 2 others and when i did get him from golds a year later he was 18" or so and now hes close to the 20-21" range.
i also had a snowflake eel go from 8" to over 24" in 2 years

I've got a Koi that is 24 yrs. old. The poor guy is in a 33 gal tank with a pleco. I never thought he would be around this long. Got him when I was into goldfish.I've read that in an outdoor pond they can live to be 100 yrs.I really should find a nicer home for him.
Also have a 12 yr old tomato clown..and a 10 yr old yellow tang.

I met a buddy who had a marine betta that was 15 years old.

I bought my jewel cichlid 3 years ago, at which point he was about 1 1/2'', now he's 3'', and obece( too much mysis ) got a blue johanni 2 years ago when he was 1'' now he's 2 1/2'' ( and yup lazy :wink: )

Trig (black blotch trigger) is 10 years old, he was 1" when I bought him...yep. He is around 7" now I think.

Spike (black back butterfly) is 8 years old, she was about 2" when I bought her, and is now about 6".

They are true survivors, and have lived through many of my mistakes over time.

My longest living fish is a pajama cardinal that I got about 2 1/2 years ago. It was about 1/2 inch when I got it. Now it is about 2 1/2 inches.

Very cool everyone thanks for the info, keep it comming :biggrin:

We have a juvi emperor angel that has gone from 1 1/2" to about 3" in four months. We also have four other fish (Naso tang, Clown tang, Queen angel, Blueface angel) in our tank that in the wild can grow up to about 24 inches. I'm thinking that if they all get that big in the next few years, I'm going to need a much bigger tank! Anyone have one of those types of fish that got really big over the years?

Great slideshow Laurie! Love your tank and little buddies :smile:
I see you make beer too, so do I. I'm not sure what's wrong with me, all my hobbies involve lifting heavy buckets of water, wine, beer, mead!:lol:

Thanks, although I do need to update the pic's, we've changed a few things since then. My boyfriend makes the wine, and he's the one who gets to do the heavy lifting :lol: