Determination of the age of Cacatuoides

[AlexL]

Hello everyone,
Unfortunately, my much loved Cacatuoide male passed away a month ago and his female stopped eating and followed him a week later. I was sure that the reason for the death of the male was caused by an accident with large ancistruses. I didn’t see any fight, but it seemed to be the only reasonable explanation. A week ago a friend of mine who had a couple of Cacatuoides from the same breeding as mine, said to me that his female apistogramma died a month before that and that his male was still alive, but it looked old. He said that he saw a characteristic for the age protrusion of a jaw and some scoliosis. My friend is more experienced in cichlids than I am. I also observed the jaw protrusion and some spinal curvature before my fish died, so it is quite plausible that the ancistruses are not guilty and that the time only was to blame. When I was buying my fish, I was told that they were about seven months old, which means that they died quite young, less than two years old. But what if the store keeper was unaware (or just didn’t say the truth) about the age of them?

So I would like to ask the respected experts, are there any ways to try to determine the age of apistogrammas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MacZ]

Especially with mass bred species and domestic forms it has sadly come to the point that many fish only reach 2-3 years, especially when kept in relatively warm water. Regular breeding activity also contributes.

So 2 years and already signs of old age means it was indeed already it's time.

Be glad, domestic forms Mikrogeophagus ramirezi are at the point that in an average hobbyist tank the fish live between 3 months and a year after purchase.

As far as I know determining the age of a fish certain bones have to be analyzed under the microscope, so it can only be done postmortem.

 

[AlexL]

Thank you!

 

[MacZ]

You're welcome!