How long do goldfish live?

adrian

The average life span of a Goldfish in the US is 3 weeks. Taking into consideration how many goldfish never even get retailed into home tanks and then how many people who kill their first batch with Ammonia, Nitrite, pH crash and eventually allow them to die under nitrates. So it's pretty short.

In nature, for example, a very large 3 acre lake with no predators, one could expect a goldfish to live for about twenty years.

There are tales about Koi living over two hundred years. Since cyprinus carpio is not known to live more than an optimistic forty, this is unlikely to be anything more than an idealized dream.

Goldfish in captivity facing the various accumulated toxins and stresses of captivity should live a good fifteen years before showing signs of aging.