Captive fish can actually live a long time it just depends on the type of care you give them. I'd say up to 5 years for fish but coral will live much longer if the condtions are right. Also the longest living thing that you can actually put in a reef aquarium would be a clam. It'll live way past a human beings average life span.

I think the really large sea turtles live longer than that, although there's a high mortality rate just after they hatch, from predators.

I've seen television shows about the hatching process.

Yeah right, i can't seem to keep a gold fish alive no matter what I do. I don't know, they might just be allergic to me or something. But I know I have flushed at least 12 goldfish down the toilet.