# Lifespan of Keyhole Cichlids



## liamfinnegan (Jul 19, 2006)

I started out with 5 keyholes in September of 2001- all but one have passed and all naturally- I had all 5 of them until the summer of 2004 when I lost two- the other two I lost in the last 6 months.

One remains and does not look so great. It spends a lot of time at the bottom of the tank- there are no obvious signs of disease ( I am not a beginner)- I just think it is on its way out- this is how the last two went.

Sunday I bought two new juvenile keyholes- they are gorgeous- I kept to the idea of always having an uneven number of a species- at first the two younger keyholes gravitated to the ancient one- but they are now off on their own.

They were the last two at the store so they do have an affinity with each other- I see no territory issues with them.

My question with the older Cichlid is this- and I have never thought of this before- Do people think it is humane to remove the dying fish from the tank (I have a brackish river right outside my house) and put him out of misery? Or is their neurological system not advanced enough to experience pain? I have always loved the keyhole because of how intelligent they are- and how human-like if it can be said about a fish.

How do people on this forum feel about euthanasia of freshwater fish?


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## dwool36 (Jan 31, 2006)

Euthanasia of a dying fish is humane. However, euthanasia of a 5-6 yr old fish that can live up to 10 years is a bit premature, don't you think?


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## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

yeah, I was about to say that the normal lifespan for keyholes is about 8-10 years - depending on water quality.


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