Frequent Aquarium Questions

• Our Betta is really fat. We've only had it for 3 months. Could she be pregnant? What do I need to do?
  
  
• What is the best way to travel short or long distance with fish? What should be considered? Would having a plant or two in the water help? If a plant is a good idea, what plant(s) would you suggest?
  
  
• I have two largemouth bass in a 55 gal standard tank.One 14inch and the other a little more than a foot,how much longer will they be comfortable in there?
  
  
• I recently set-up a 20 gal. fresh water aquarium and started with 14 fantail goldfish and 5 bunches of live aquatic plants after 2 weeks the plants have almost tripled in size when I started, and my goldfish started dying one after the other and now I have only 6 goldfish in the tank. Can you help me with this?
  
  
• Are Gold Severums mouth breeders?
  
  
• What are some good tankmates for common goldfish? The tank I have now is 10 gallons.
  
  
• I've had a Red Tail Shark for over 2 years. I recently moved it to a 25 gallon tank and added 5 smaller Tiger Barbs. I was informed they would get along, and have been watching them. The Tiger Barbs appear to be nipping at the Redtail-sharks tail. Are these two species compatible?
  
  
• I bought a goldfish about three weeks ago from a tank in walmart that said common goldfish. It bears a striking resemblance to a red cap oranda. Its red part is turning black. it looks like a scab. Do orandas heads do that or is it a common goldfish with a disease?
  
  
• Why is one of my blue gouramis almost black in color? The others all range from light blue to turquiose.
  
  
• In a 55 gal. tank which contains two Jack Dempseys. What fish can we add that have a good chance of getting along with our almost full grown fish?
  
  

• Our Betta is really fat. We've only had it for 3 months. Could she be pregnant? What do I need to do?
  
  Bettas do not get "pregnant." The female lays eggs and the male fertilizes the eggs externally. If your fish is a female (short fins), then she is gravid, meaning she is full of eggs (called roe). You should do nothing unless you intend to breed her in which case you should read a book on Bettas to learn how to do this. If the female does not breed, the roe will get absorbed by the body and will eventually grow back again.
  
  If the fish is a male (long flowing fins), then he is getting sick with an internal bacterial infection which should be treated using a Betta-specific medicine. We favor Betta-Max by Aquatronics.
  
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• What is the best way to travel short or long distance with fish? What should be considered? Would having a plant or two in the water help? If a plant is a good idea, what plant(s) would you suggest?
  
  The best way to transport fish long distance is to bring them to a fish store that has oxygen and let the store pack the fish in bags with oxygen so they can travel without suffocating. There really is no other sure means of transporting fish over long distances.
  
  We define a "short distance" as no more than six hours, in which case, the fish should be transported in a 5 gallon bucket with only two gallons of water in it and aerated with a baettery-operated air pump.
  
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• I have two largemouth bass in a 55 gal standard tank.One 14inch and the other a little more than a foot,how much longer will they be comfortable in there?
  
  Bass, which are cold water fish, need lots of room. Room temperature aquariums are really too warm for Bass and they will grow faster as a result.
  
  Watch their gill movement and take note of it now. If you start to see them listing on one side, refusing to eat or respiring more rapidly than they are now, it's time to get out the grill.
  
  That was not a joke by the way. When game fish get too big for your tank, YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER release them back into the wild. That is a great way to introduce a foreign disease into a natural waterway and wipe out the entire population of native fish. It is also, by the way, quite illegal to do so. You can take them to an aquarium store, give them to someone with a bigger tank, or simply fry them up with some flour and butter, but don't let them go in a local lake or pond. Based on personal experience, we would give them another three to six months.
  
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• I recently set-up a 20 gal. fresh water aquarium and started with 14 fantail goldfish and 5 bunches of live aquatic plants after 2 weeks the plants have almost tripled in size when I started, and my goldfish started dying one after the other and now I have only 6 goldfish in the tank. Can you help me with this?
  
  Goldfish require a lot more water than tropical fish. The rule of thumb is a minumum of 30 gallons for one goldfish and 10 gallons of water for every other goldfish added. If you add too many, nature will take over and all will die. Goldfish are not a recommended fish for anything smaller than a 30 gallon tank.
  
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• Are Gold Severums mouth breeders?
  
  No, Severums, green and gold (Cichlasoma severum), are egg layers that tend their eggs after breeding without incubating the eggs in their mouths.
  
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• What are some good tankmates for common goldfish? The tank I have now is 10 gallons.
  
  The only suitable tank mates for goldfish are other goldfish. These fish need cooler water conditions than almost all other fish sold in the aquarium trade.
  
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• I've had a Red Tail Shark for over 2 years. I recently moved it to a 25 gallon tank and added 5 smaller Tiger Barbs. I was informed they would get along, and have been watching them. The Tiger Barbs appear to be nipping at the Redtail-sharks tail. Are these two species compatible?
  
  Yes, they should be compatible, and the Redtail Shark (Labeo bicolor) will probably not put up with that for very long. We recommend you add more cover to your tank to reduce aggression. Adding more plants, live or artificial, especially taller plants, will help with this.
  
  This type of mild aggression is common to both of those species and is easily eliminated in most cases by adding a lot more cover so the fish do not see eachother so easily. Most tanks are under-decorated because of the false assumption that if too many decorations are used the fish will all hide. The exact opposite is actually the truth.
  
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• I bought a goldfish about three weeks ago from a tank in walmart that said common goldfish. It bears a striking resemblance to a red cap oranda. Its red part is turning black. it looks like a scab. Do orandas heads do that or is it a common goldfish with a disease?
  
  Most common goldfish sold are raised in large ponds filled with not only common goldfish, but also other varieties. The other types of goldfish that are introduced into these populations are usually the "runts" or imperfect specimens from fancy goldfish breeding operations from the same fish farm. They simply dump these "unwanted" specimens into the mix where they interbreed with the rest of the population producing "sports" like the one you found. As there is such a large gene pool involved, it is not unusual for color changes to occur with such specimens, and that is what we suspect is happening here.
  
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• Why is one of my blue gouramis almost black in color? The others all range from light blue to turquiose.
  
  The Three-spot Gourami, Trichogaster trichopterus, has been hybridized into many color varieties. The blue, opaline, gold, platinum and snakeskin Gouramis are actually all the same species, so many color variations are possible.
  
  However, you may also have two males in the tank together. Like their cousins, the Bettas, male Gouramis do not usually tolerate eachother. One will be dominant and the other submissive. The submissive one will display darker colors because it is stressed. Fish can change their colors when the need arises. Male Gouramis of almost all species have a long pointed dorsal (top) fin, and females have a short rounded dorsal fin. The darker fish could simply be a darker variety, or it should be removed and a female added.
  
  By the way, Gouramis should be kept in Male/Female pairs. They do not always do very well in groups.
  
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• In a 55 gal. tank which contains two Jack Dempseys. What fish can we add that have a good chance of getting along with our almost full grown fish?
  
  Well gosh! That's actually a difficult question to answer. A lot will depend on the temperament of your Dempseys, how long they've been in the tank, and whether they are a breeding pair. It is quite possible that you may not be able to add any other fish to the tank if the Dempseys have adopted the entire tank as their territory.
  
  Jack Dempseys can vary a lot in behavior, but a very aggressive full-grown breeding pair can be quite brutal towards any new fish that are added, especially if the Dempseys have been in the tank by themselves for a long time.
  
  Provided they are at least as large as the Dempseys or full-grown for the species, we will hesitantly recommend the following species with no guarantees, and we will follow this list with some tips: Leporinus species, Plecostomus or Ancistrus species, Botia species, and possibly the following Cichlids (but they will be at the highest risk here): Dovii, Green Terrors, Red Devils.
  
  We would recommend that before adding the fish, you buy a lot more decorative rock and weighted plastic plants. Give the tank a good water change and then rearrange the tank adding lots of decorations and creating tons of hiding places and mocro-territories. Catch the Dempsies and place them in a bucket with an airstone running. Then acclimate your new fish, making sure you are adding at least six larger fish at one time. Give them an hour to get settled, AND THEN put the Dempseys back in. Good luck!
  
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