i think my angelfish is pregnant???

[stevefromga2000]

i am on the forum a lot, but always for saltwater. hopefully somebody here can help me out just as much as i get help there. i have a 10 gallon tank, rio 100 powerhead with the filter attached, and i'm not sure about the lighting or any other details. anyways, we have 4 angelfish in the tank, 1 pleco, and 1 cory cat. we think that one of the angelfish are pregnant. it's starting to get really fat in the belly, right at the bottom of the fish and i believe right behind the gills. the tank is in my daughters room, so i can't go look right now, but i'll post later if i need to. the questions....

1-how old does an angelfish have to be to breed?

2-how can i tell if she if pregnant or not?

3-if she is pregnant, what should we do to prepare ahead of time to keep all of the babies?

4-if pregnant, how long do we have to prepare?

i appreciate all the help, so does my wife, and we hope that somebody can help us out. thank you ahead of time.

[rich311k]

1. About 8 months to a year.

2. They don't get pregnant. They lay eggs. Mine lay every other week and I honestly can't see a difference in her before or after laying.

3. You need a male to fertilize the eggs. They will form pairs before hand. In that small a tank, the mated pair would kill the other two angels, because they would have no where else to go.

4. You really need at least a 29 for two angel fish 55 for four.

[Zagz]

If she is fat are her scales sticking out from her at all? Is she still eating and pooping normally? I agree that the tank is too small for 4 angels. What are your parameters? It might be a water quality issue.

[stevefromga2000]

everything seems normal with her. maybe she's just eating too much. on another note, i talked to my wife and we had no idea that they needed that much room to stay happy. unfortunatley, we don't have a lot of room in our home for a 50 gallon tank or bigger. however, we do have room for a 40 gallon. i already have a 40 gallon saltwater tank, and the stand that it's on has room for a second identical tank to be placed on the bottom. we talked about it and decided that we need to do what's best for the fish, or get rid of them. we like the fish, so we want to get the new aquarium. we will be getting the aquarium, the glass top, and the lighting this weekend. my questions are...

can i use some of the water out of the other tank to help cylce this tank?

how long should i let the new tank cycle?

what kind of equipment do i need to buy first so that i can cycle the tank?

i know that it usually takes at least two weeks to cycle, and that is my pay cycle. i will get more money in two more weeks so that we can get more equipment, therefore i would like to know exactly which equipment is needed right away?

[joannde]

BRAVO to you and your wife for thinking about your fish and doing the best for them.

You can move the filter from the 10gallon tank onto the 40. If it doesn't fit just cut it to fit, but try and use the whole thing. You can also take some of the decorations and substrate from the 10gallon to futher seed the 40. That will seed the cycle up significantly and you should be good to go immediately with moving the angels over.

You might also want to move the pleco over at some point, depending upon the species they can get very large also. Do you know what species it is by any chance ?

[stevefromga2000]

i have no idea what species the pleco is. what i wanted to do was to actually keep the 10 gallon in my daughter's room with something like a goldfish or something, keep the pleco, and the cory in there as well. i was thinking about putting everything from the 10 gallon into the 40 to cycle it, and then moving the two cleaners back into the 10 after it has been cycled through. i don't think that my pleco will get much bigger. it hasn't grown very much at all since we've had him. when i go to the store, what kind of pleco should i look for that will grow bigger? and would just one be enough? i also thought about some kind of bottom feeder like another small cory cat. is that a good idea?

[rich311k]

You can move everything over, wait about a month and then move the filter back to the ten gallon. It will still be cycled.

A goldfish will get too big for a ten gallon tank. A dwarf gourami or a betta would be nice for a ten gallon. I would bet you have a common pleco. I would return it to the store while it is still smaller. You could get more corys of the same type for both tanks. They are a lot of fun in small groups.

The minimum equipment you would need right now for the 40 is a heater and a filter. You can even wait on substrate but it is easier to add it before you fill the tank up.

[stevefromga2000]

okay. i will get the same heater that i have for my saltwater tank. i think it's a 250w heater, but i'm not positive. it works excellent with that tank, so it should be good for the new tank as well. i will probably just do like you said and put the small filter in the big tank to help out, and then after a while just move it back and keep the new filter in the 40 gallon. here, they only sell rio filters to go "in tank", but i don't know a lot about the rios. the smaller one is actually a 200, i previously thought it was a 100, but what size should i get for the bigger one? or would the small one suffice long enough for me to order a different filter online?

[rich311k]

As long as you add no new fish the old one will suffice. You may need an extra water change or two, but that is no big deal. A 200 watt heater would be perfect.I do not know about those filters but I would get one with a 10 times per hour turn over with that oscar in the tank.

[stevefromga2000]

with that oscar in the tank.

which oscar? i don't have an oscar. maybe i'm just confused. but thanks for the advice about the filter and heater. i'll let everybody know when we get it all set up. thanks once again for all the support.

[rich311k]

Sorry was thinking of another thread. 7 - 10 times turnover will be fine for your angels. Sorry about that.