When would you say you've had "long term" success?

[apex003]

When would you say you've had long term success keeping a particular organism, be it coral or fish?

And what is your oldest organism and how long have you had it?

Mine are probably zoanthids that I've had for 3+ years, since I started my oldest nano.

[apex003]

pics also welcome...

Here's some I've had for probably 3+ years...

[SWaquariast]

If you can keep a aquarium going for over 4years I think your doing pretty good.

[SWaquariast]

Just hit the 2 year mark.

[Blazer88]

I've grown this frogspawn from a single head to about the size of a volleyball over the past three and a half years. I guess I would consider that long-term success.

[cee]

I still have acros from when I set my tank up in 2003 but am still learning something every week or so. So I guess I'm in the "successful" category but am still ocassionally suffer an unexplained loss.

[Obliduty]

Blazer, that is truly awesome. Id have a moonlight on that everynight.

Mine would probably be my 4+yr old neon goby since they usually parish around the 2 yr mark

[pledosophy]

My best success was with seahorses. I had a WC reidi for 5.5 years. At the time of purchase average life span was thought to be two years. What makes it a succsess to me is not only did I raise his babies, but also his grand babies. 3rd generation CB fish.

I consider corals a succsess when they grow out to the point where I can frag them and share them, thus keeping the demand lower so less are harvested from the wild. I've sent out over 500 boxes with various things I've grown in the last five years. Took me a few years to get to that point.

JMO

[phish guy]

my bubble coral, ive had it about 2yrs now





super pink palys there werenly 6 when i brought them home

[sassafrass]

when I pass my tank on to my grand children

[IridescentLily]

I have pics somewhere but too lazy to find them. I had a Mimic tang, a coral beauty, and a pair of percs and their sebae for 8 years. Bought all of them when they were small. They were always so healthy for the eight years I kept them. So I guess I was succesful.
When I moved, my friend who works at my lfs took them and they promptly died the next day in the bucket that they used for transfer. :-( I still miss them when I think about them.

[kar93]

When my Clown Tang hit the 4 month old mark. Might not seem like much but that is considered quite something because these fish don't generally live beyond the 3 month mark. But now unfortunately hes passed on.

[kass03]

This is the first coral I bought 25 years ago. A bubble coral.
It's had it's ups and downs over the years but still doing well. I never feed it either. I had to move it to my 150 being it gets long sweeper tentacles and stings the corals around it.

Ive had many fish live for 8-13 years but they usually die over something stupid like my hippo tang jumping out after 8 years.

I dunno if you ever really feel successfull in this hobby. I still sometimes lose corals Ive had for many years for no apparent reason.



kass

[twon8]

Originally posted by kass03
This is the first coral I bought 25 years ago. A bubble coral.
It's had it's ups and downs over the years but still doing well. I never feed it either. I had to move it to my 150 being it gets long sweeper tentacles and stings the corals around it.

Ive had many fish live for 8-13 years but they usually die over something stupid like my hippo tang jumping out after 8 years.

I dunno if you ever really feel successfull in this hobby. I still sometimes lose corals Ive had for many years for no apparent reason.


kass

that is damn impressive; i'm proud of my four years, and i too lose something for some unknown reason every now and then.

I'd say long term is more than a year, or growing/reproducing.
i still have the first coral i ever bought, a candy cane that i paid 12 bucks for two heads, it has since grown very large and after splitting i almost lost it in a tank overheating. It's in the middle of this pic, one of the few of my pics in my gallery. This pic is very old, tank looks very different now.







i still have this pair of clowns, have had them since october 03, they are spawning regularly and host in the 4 or 5 rbta's in my 90

[stagefright13]

Wow Kass that is beautiful!!!

I will consider myself successful when my Clarki once again has a mate. I am working on it. She is like 6 to 7 years old. And very well taken care of by me. I have a baby next to her in the QT tank.

I also have Giant Silver Dollars in my fresh water tank that are 2 years over there lifespan and are fully healthy! When they pass on some day I will put my reef in the bigger tank.

And very true stupid things can happen after many years. I had a Silver Dollar jump the tank. And a Cinnamon Clown. Luckily my girlfriend heard the Silver Dollar and I got it back in the tank. But the Clown did it while we were sleeping. Sigh.

[Untamed12]

I think that if you can get a reef tank through the first year, you are home free. That first year can certainly be a challenge.

Long term, my longest was a couple of damsels that lived 12 and 13 years. I expect to better that with my current fish, but I'm had most now for only 2 years.

I have some SPS and hammer coral that I've kept now for nearly 7 years.

[stagefright13]

Damsels are really cool fish! They are fast colorful and fun to watch. And Hearty! I feel really bad people use them to "Cycle" a tank. Especially since their lifespan is so high. And there are so many better options to cycle a tank.