Over the years I have aquired many fish as babies or very young and watched them grow to old age. They seem to age almost like us and some even get wrinkles. I remember one of my first percula clowns that I got when he was 1/2" long. He grew to only about 1/1/2" and got to about 14 years old. He was never sick and did even get a few wrinkles. Or it looked like that anyway.
I find that fish get more secretive also as they age. My cusk eel sometimes would swim around as a youngster but as he aged, I never saw him unless it was at night with a flashlight. He died in an accident at the age of 18.
I also got my fire clown as a tiny fish and I thought he was a red hawkfish at first. He is now about 16 and very ornery. I can't put my hand in the tank without getting bit. This biting started a couple of years ago. Of course now he (or she) is spawning so they get mean in that state anyway.
OK not really mean, but protective. He fights all day with my long nose butterfly who likes eating in the fireclown's nesting area.
This pair of watchman gobi's started off as tiny, skinny yellow fish. Then they turned into grayish brown fish that would always stay together in the front. After a few years they started to spawn and lay their eggs in the back of the tank but after they hatched, they would come back into the front. Gradually they started to stay in the back and under rocks and I can never get a full glimpse of them anymore. They are also hard to feed because I have to look for them under the rocks with a flashlight, then shoot some clams into their den. They love fresh clams.
I don't remember how old they are, maybe 10 or 12 so they have at least another decade to facinate me.
THis is one of them as a baby


Here they are about a year old, always in the front and always together



Then they got old and fat


But they still have time for each other as evidenced by her with a batch of eggs

Paul B, thanks for the great insight to your traviles with your fish history,,really interesting,just recently I have got into the start of this journey, might extented my life a bit,,really love what the fish can share with us,,interesting that..all the best

Thanks Bruce. My main concern is that I will not live long enough to learn everything I want to know. But I am trying.

it's raining here now and cold so as I was looking at my tank trying to get into my fishes heads I thought I would post something, I don't exactly know what but it will come to me. I notice that my two fireclowns now are no longer breeding with each other but have two different nest sites on opposite sides of the tank. This is a problem for the other fish because each fireclown attacks any other fish that come near. My long nose butterfly has to navigate through both territories on his circumnavigation of the tank every minute or so and on each pass must confront both fish. The two clowns do not invade each other's areas but they do meet at the boundry of each ones domain and give each other dirty looks.
The hippo tang has learned to take a short cut to by pass both fishes nesting sites and has no problems. Hippo tangs are much more comfortable navigating in close quarters of rock than long nose butterflies. In the sea a hippo tang will take cover in the rocks while a long nose butterfly will try to swim away just above the rocks.
I would imagine their long nose would make it difficult to get into tight spaces, or get out anyway. Also a butterfly has more of a defense mechanism in the long sharp spines of it's dorsal fin that it thrusts in it's opponent's face and a hippo tang has an offensive weapon in the scalpel that it has just before it's tail. That is why they call them surgeon fish but we all knew that.
I also think that the clowns know about the other fishes weapons and know which fish they should not mess with. They don't seem to bother with all the other bottom dwelling fish and pay no attention to the gobies, mandarin or pipefish. I guess they consider rthose fish as sissies and no threat.
Just my observations on a rainy day

I am finding that I enjoy buying the more fragile (must be french or something) baby fish and watching them grow. I currently have two juvinile African Cichlids (red zebra, yellow lab) and I love to watch them, they seem to have a little more character to them shy and skittish. think it's cute seeing them hid and then pokke their heads out to see what's happening.

Some of the fish I bought were fair size, I believe from here on out I will be buying them as close to fry as I can.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Thats because you know what you are doing

I hope you're right Paul! Not sure about knowing what I'm doing but I do know most if not all living things require a certian level of care/attention/love/dedication/etc..

I'm an animal lover, recently dove into the fish keeping cause I wasn't allowed to have a dog (renter). And so far so good, maybe a little over zelous with the keeping of the tanks but my fish are happy!

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Wow

Wish I had a tank that would last long enough to make these kinds of observations.

I always had to tear down the tank every 5 years or so due to moving.


my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Really Beaslbob? I wish I had some of your setups.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Then perhaps you should have lived in one of the cities I moved from while I was in the air force.

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I took this picture in Bora Bora and long nose butterflies are rather common there and they have no trouble living with the very large fish of the South Pacific. They have their niche with their long nose and can pull food from deep holes. The wild ones in the picture seem to have longer snouts than the ones in our tanks. Maybe because those fish are not collected in Bora Bora being so remote from just about everywhere. I am sure their snouts kept evolving longer to get at those elusive worms because other fish there also have long snouts to get at that food but no where near as long as these butterflies.
They don't dive in the coral as that nose is very fragile and their jaw looks as if it would break just by thinking about diving in coral. If they damage that mouth, they die. They can not eat much at one time and must forage all day. They also can not tear food into pieces like many fish can. They try by shaking their heads but those tiny teeth are practically useless for tearing and I would imagine just by the physics of their anatomy that if they shake too hard they would crack their jaw.
These types of fish along with mandarins, seahorses and pipefish need to eat at least a few times a day, preferably all day but that is not usually possable in a captive reef which is why these types of fish are considered "difficult". It is not their fault that they are difficult, but ours. They live quite well if their needs are met especially in regard to food. If we were fed half a cow once a day and were not allowed to use our hands. And it was consumed by other creatures in a matter of seconds, we would also starve,
But if that cow was cut up in tiny pieces and re plenished every few minutes, we would not have a problem.
I personally feed my fish in the morning with some live worms. That is mainly to keep the long nose healthy and many of the other fish are not up yet because they can eat more food at one seating so they get along with the last meal in the afternoon.
Then I give the tank new born brine shrimp every day.
The shrimp are for the tiny bluestripe pipefish, the clown gobies and some corals like the gorgonians. The other fish eat them but I think they think of them like M&Ms because they are just too small to supply much nutrition.
If I did not feed worms and baby shrimp, I would not be able to keep these fish long enough for them to die of old age. I would not have a fish that I was not willing to care for. The fish we keep should not have to adapt to our world but we should at least try the best we can to have the world we create for them to be as close as possable to their world. We can not give them an ocean to swim in but we can and should at least supply them with what they need and what they recognize as food.
No matter how nutritious it is, if they don't recognize it as food, they will not eat it.