Life span of freshwater aquarium fish

Bought two cichlids four years ago----one orange one blue as I'm a Auburn fan---the orange ate the blue within 3 days and has been in tank by himself ever since...feed him the omega one frozen cichlid formula rather than standard fish flakes which I think may be a reason for the longevity...thinking four fish years is like 75 human,,,anyone else having good luck 

All depends..... Are you planning on some homemade sashimi, kid??

Mine were doing great until I bought a live rock which introduced super ick and killed everything but my coral banded shrimp.

Funny story.  One of the ick victims was a very aggressive damsel who way before the ick outbreak had been nipping at some of my very expensive fish (I had bought him for like $5).  I had seen first hand what happens, they nip the tail little by little until the vertebrae are exposed and the victim fish dies.

Anyway, I got so fed up with him one night I scooped him up with the net and threw him into the bushes outside.  Well 10 minutes pass and I am sitting feeling so guilty because I had that damsel for a couple of years and I just threw him out there to die a lonely painful death

I went outside with a flashlight and after looking around for a bit, found him covered in dirt on the ground under a bush dead or near dead. I took him inside, washed the dirt off, and dropped him in the tank.

When I first plopped him in he was lifeless with just the slightest gill movement.  He spiraled helplessly to the bottom of the tank and lay there motionless except for some irregular gulps now and then.  He seemed to be coming back though, but by this time he had caught the attention of his former victims. 

After swimming around sideways and upside down for awhile and  with the other fish taking shots at him, he eventually regained his faculties.  He started bullying the tank again, because this fish was just a bad behind I guess.  So over the next few days I transferred the fish he didn't like to other tank owners and he, a shrimp, and a tang he got along with became the only occupants

I had an Oscar in a 55 gal tank when I was in college... I would feed him a dozen goldfish during parties.  Girls love that brutal garbage, they drink beer and watch animals eat each other and bam their panties are off!

I have a Red Oscar that is 20 years old. Still swimming looking great.