Talk:Thorichthys meeki
The maximum age of 5 years seems wrong to me. The oldest one I had die was at least 7 years old at the time of it's death. Cichlids tends to be relatively long lived species. 5 years is on the short side.
Age[edit]
The age of which fish live for is only an average based on anecdote evidence. IIRC there was a report in PFK a few months ago about this. So called official ages are only estimates based on mainly wild caught fish and doing an analyst of their scales. Few Aquarists do this when their ageing fish dies and fewer still publicise it. Some Koi keepers in China claim they have fish over 200 years old.
If we look at the average age humans live for we know it is very dependent on environment and diet for example. Some grow to live longer than 100 years, females tend to live longer than males in our species and then some people in some countries only live for 50-60 years. It's the same with all lifeforms.
So the fact your fish may have lived longer than the 'accepted norm', this isn't unusual. You must have been looked after your fish well.
If you have any factual evidence to backup any claim that the figure for this species is wrong. Please feel free to submit it. That's the point of this Wiki site. :-)
--Quatermass 19:54, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
