Idea for Polling fish mortality rates

[Chin_Lee]

I wanted to run this idea by moderators and Canreefers in general on a forum dedicated to polling Canreefers on the mortality rates of different reef fish they have ever kept or tried keeping. The poll will not classify the various types of death - it will basically let people know if these fishes will survive long term or not.
Example 1 - if you killed all your fish in 2 months because you had a newbie tank syndrome and you decided to stock 20 fishes into your 20 gallon tank within 2 months, you would still choose 2 months as the longest you had kept these 20 fishes alive.
Example 2 - if you sold your fish after 10 months, do not include your experience into the poll because it didn't die on you and let the person who bought your fish enter their experience into the poll taking into account that they bought it from another person who've had it for 10 months.

I think is a good way for everybody to get a general idea of what types of fish are available in our LFS that we should or shouldn't buy. A poll would have to be created for each species of fish and the options would be something like:

0-1 months
2-3 months
4-5 months
6-7 months
8-9 months
10-12 months
1 - 1.5 years
1.5 - 2 years
2 years +

I know its not going to be the most accurate way to determine their mortality rates but it will give us a general overall sense on how these fishes will adapt to aquarium life.

Your thoughts?

[michika]

I think this is a fantastic idea! I would definitely be interested in it.

[mark]

If the tank was well covered but for a little gap above the euro-bracing and the stupid wrasse decided to go carpet surfing, did I really kill it?

I'll join in though.

[Chin_Lee]

Originally Posted by mark

If the tank was well covered but for a little gap above the euro-bracing and the stupid wrasse decided to go carpet surfing, did I really kill it?

I'll join in though.

regardless it will let everyone know how long they last before they carpet surf....... cuz thats what happened with mine as well

[Delphinus]

Just trying to understand how it would work. You're thinking basically an open-ended (ie. no closing date) poll for each kind of fish we can think of. So for example, one poll might be for "Yellow Tang", another for "Lawnmower blenny" and so on.

We'd end up with a LOT of categories, but, the potential for gathering long-term data as time goes on would be pretty good.

Something like that?

I like the idea as well.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Just trying to understand how it would work. You're thinking basically an open-ended (ie. no closing date) poll for each kind of fish we can think of. So for example, one poll might be for "Yellow Tang", another for "Lawnmower blenny" and so on.

We'd end up with a LOT of categories, but, the potential for gathering long-term data as time goes on would be pretty good.

Something like that?

I like the idea as well.

Yeah but a new to the hobby vs an old hand, a reef vs a fish only. Lots of live rock vs not so much, regular water changes etc... to many variables for it to be that accurate.

[fortheloveofcrabs]

What about my jawfish that's been MIA for 2 months...? I figure "lost at sea"

I'm in - good idea.

[Zylumn]

Great idea. Tank size and years running could be simple classifications.
Kevin

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Great idea Chin.

[Chin_Lee]

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

Yeah but a new to the hobby vs an old hand, a reef vs a fish only. Lots of live rock vs not so much, regular water changes etc... to many variables for it to be that accurate.

i agree but what it can provide is for people to realize how long these fishes actually survive in our tanks. There is nothing in this world that can ever calculate all the variables and the poll is really not for accuracy.
The way I see its, the general idea behind it is lets say I want to buy a mandarin goby and I see that only a handful of people out of 100 have managed to keep it alive for longer than 1 year, I might have second thoughts about buying one.
On the other hand, I want to buy a yellow tang and 40 of 100 people have managed to keep them alive for 3-5 years, thats a pretty good indication that this fish is a good keeper.

Yes the list of fish could get substantial but once all the "common" ones are in, its the only ones most people will be interested in. I would not expect to see species like green sea turtle, hammerhead shark, or pineapple fish.

In some way, its my way to contribute to the conservation of some of the harder to keep fish.