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Brook silverside lifespan - 1 year?


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#1 Guest_NickMDal_*

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Posted 12 October 2014 - 10:50 PM

Just read on Wikipedia that their lifespan is 1 year. :sad2: Are my pair doomed to pass on soon? They are just beautiful and outgoing. They even took to eating dried blood worms and some flake food.

Just recently noticed that they look noticably thinner. They are still eating voraciously, have great color and the fins are perfect. Is this their destiny this winter?

When first caught. http://youtu.be/XWvN...ez5R_grVf0gr7hA I'll post a recent image tomorrow.

#2 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 13 October 2014 - 07:20 AM

That's a great question, I have only kept one silverside and he lived for about 9 months in the tank. Maybe some others will chime in here on how long they have been able to keep silversides alive.

I do know for a fact that the "captive" lifespans of many animals (including native fishes) are much longer than "wild" lifespans. People talk about many fish being annuals that people have had stay alive for 2, 3, 4 years. And a few others that have published lifespans of 3-5 years that have been kept successfully in aquaria will beyond that (my 8 year old ozark madtom being my personal favorite "old" fish to talk about). So there is hope if you can keep them well fed.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#3 Guest_centrarchid_*

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Posted 13 October 2014 - 03:24 PM

I have many that appear to live about 1.5 years at least in a pond setting.

#4 Guest_NickMDal_*

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Posted 13 October 2014 - 06:04 PM

Thanks for this help! Phoebes and I were really bummed but maybe there is hope. O:)

I posted a clip of the tank this morning and it shows what I think is thin-ness. Does this look like starvation or age? They are fed at least 3 times per day but its hard to track how much they each eat. The food is freeze-dried bloodworms supplemented with flakes (they don't eat nearly as much of the flakes).

We could really use some advice about their health. Thinking they were already a little thin before the ghost shiners were added last week. The shiners are pirahna-like when they feed, creating a near-frenzy. Their bellies are always bulging!

http://youtu.be/1SJY...ez5R_grVf0gr7hA

Thanks again. How great to have people to ask about this!

#5 Guest_NickMDal_*

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Posted 13 October 2014 - 08:50 PM

My god that is the most boring video I've ever made! To save time, the silversides are easy to see at 3:00.

Really need to redo it. :laugh: After yelling for 3 hours during the Cowboy game, I sound like I'm 90!

#6 Guest_NotCousteau_*

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Posted 13 October 2014 - 09:39 PM

Great tank, Nick! Don't have anything else to add since I know nothing about brook silversides. I'd love to collect some of my own one day.

#7 Guest_Stickbow_*

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Posted 29 October 2014 - 04:02 PM

The only ones I caught were probably already 6 months old, and they lived from collecting in Oct/Nov until late the next summer. They didn't breed, and were in pretty bad shape just getting them home. They shed scales like cuh-razy.




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