Older fish for sale

[gronlaura]

Thought of something while at my LFS this weekend - fish that are for sale and are adult size, is it possible they could be older fish, near the end of their life span?

[madagascariensis]

They could be fish that some previous owner dumped at the store, some stores let you just bring random fish in. They could be retired breeding stock from the fish farms. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing their age.

[genocidex]

Be able to spot signs of being stunted and judge by their max size. If they hit their size then you can guess they are closer to the end. But you never know

[mizzoutank]

and it depends the fish.
some fish can reach 8/9yrs old.
others are 2years max. so it's tough to really know.