Opae Ula lifespan

[Harry]

While surfing through some Opae sites, I found this interesting piece of information: The Opae Ula have a lifespan of 20 years in captivity, but only one to three years in the wild. Can anyone explain or verify this?

[LeShrimp]

In they wild they live to be around 12 years old i'm pretty sure.

[Mustafa]

To not confuse future readers, let's not throw around with numbers that have no sources attached to them. I am not aware of any studies that claim that these shrimp only live 1-3 years (or 12 years, or whatever number) in the wild. If there are such studies I would love to see them. Until then, people can, of course, claim whatever they want, but publishing such claims on websites does not make them any more true than someone telling you "I heard that...bla bla.bla x information without a source or verification" on the street, bar or some random forum. Besides possible predation, there is no reason why shrimp in the wild would have any shorter lifespans than shrimp in captivity. These shrimp tend to live in habitats that are *usually* devoid of most predators, so there is a good chance that there are some very old shrimp out there.

[Harry]

I agree that information on the internet is not necessarily accurate. That is why I asked if anyone could verify or explain the hypothesis that these shrimp only live three years in the wild. When you think about it, how can someone track that? These are not lions or elephants that can be tagged and tracked. Speculating, I would think they live longer in the wild, as tank conditions cannot really simulate what happens in the wild, such as changes with tide, etc.

[Mustafa]

Speculating, I would think they live longer in the wild, as tank conditions cannot really simulate what happens in the wild, such as changes with tide, etc.

What conditions would those be? Most animals don't live as long in the wild as in captivity, mostly due to the facts that they either get eaten or killed in the wild, or both. Some of them may starve to death, too. Changes in tide are irrelevant to the longevity of these animals, or any other that I am aware of.