Age Of Fish?

[Guest johblow]

Ive been wondering about the age of the fish we catch and keep, cause ive read here recently that a thumper bream is 25 years old.

That kind of threw me because if it takes that long for a bream to get to "thumper" status, then i wonder how there are any left? Also, the little buggers (and especially little reddies) seems to be everywhere in massive numbers. I guess i assumed that those little guys were a year old or something, so they would grow at the rate of, say, 8cm per year until they reach full size? Im guessing here - its not fact ;-) anyone know the facts?

I guess that just like us humans some fish grow bigger than others, and some have bigger #%$@%'s hahaha

Does anyone know what the life cycle of fish is and how they work out the legal sizes? Would love to hear about it