Frequent Aquarium Questions

• I just got some neon tetras, black skirt tetras and sunset fire wag platy. How often do these fish breed? What are the chances I got a male and female?
  
  
• I have 1 beta fish in tank with 2 kissing gouramies,dwarf gouramies and scanvenger fish. Why is the beta so agressive with other fish?
  
  
• I have 4 Serpae Tetras and they seem to be nipping with each other. Are they aggressive? Will they kill each other?
  
  
• My Salvini cichlids have bred and I now have about 20 half inch fry. When will the parents abandon the fry and what other cichlids can I keep them with? Is there any way I can trade or sell the fry?
  
  
• I have two Red Oscars that have recently started moving the rocks in the aquarium like they may be starting to spawn. If they do spawn , would they eat the fry ?
  
  
• I have two Red Oscars that have recently started moving the rocks in the aquarium like they may be starting to spawn. If they do spawn , would they eat the fry ?
  
  
• What considerations should I consider when thinking about buying a Pirhana?
  
  
• I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RED TAILED SHARKS.
  
  
• Can you put a male Betta in a tropical tank with other fish, but not other Bettas?
  
  
• I am moving and need to know the best way to go about moving my aquarium.I have a twenty gallon tall tank with sharks, algae eaters and an eel.
  
  

• I just got some neon tetras, black skirt tetras and sunset fire wag platy. How often do these fish breed? What are the chances I got a male and female?
  
  The Tetras will be difficult to breed unless you set up a dedicated tank for them to breed in. Tetra species can be sexed but it is not that easy. Females are typically broader in width and have a larger abdomen. There are other methods of sexing individual species which you can find in books. Platies on the other hand are livebearers and are fairly easy to breed. You may very well have a male and a female and the female will bear young about every 28 days. Most fish will eat the fry, including the parents, so the fry will need to be isolated from the other fish in the tank.
  
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• I have 1 beta fish in tank with 2 kissing gouramies,dwarf gouramies and scanvenger fish. Why is the beta so agressive with other fish?
  
  Bettas (Betta splendons) and Gouramis are both members of the same family, the Anabantoids. Bettas are very aggressive towards many fish which is where they got their common name, Siamese Fighting Fish. Bettas do not make good community tank fish and should be kept by themselves in a fish bowl. They do not need filtration, as they can breathe air at the surface, but they will need a 50% water change twice a week in their bowl.
  
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• I have 4 Serpae Tetras and they seem to be nipping with each other. Are they aggressive? Will they kill each other?
  
  Serpae Tetras are little fin-nippers and no, they won't kill eachother. Like many schooling fish, they nip at eachother to establish a pecking order, with the biggest bully at the top, and the wimpiest at the bottom.
  
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• My Salvini cichlids have bred and I now have about 20 half inch fry. When will the parents abandon the fry and what other cichlids can I keep them with? Is there any way I can trade or sell the fry?
  
  With many species of Cichlids, the parents will tolerate the presence of their first batch of fry until they begin breeding again and start a second batch. Salvinis are no exception. If you see signs that the parents are going to breed again, such as displays by the male to the female, you should remove the first batch of fry. This is not true of all Cichlids, so a book should be consulted for other species. As far as selling or trading the fry, all we can say is . . . you can try, but don't expect too much. You'll only get about 25% of what the store is selling for fish of the same species and size, and that would be a generous offer. Breeding fish for profit is a full-time job, and selling a batch of fry here and there is not going to make you rich or get you a lot of free fish. Stores buy fish for about 1/4 of what they sell them for so that they can make up for losses.
  
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• I have two Red Oscars that have recently started moving the rocks in the aquarium like they may be starting to spawn. If they do spawn , would they eat the fry ?
  
  No. Almost all Cichlids are very good parents and will raise and defend their brood until they are ready to spawn again, at which time, the fry should be removed. In some cases, if the tank is very large, the parents will allow several broods to co-exist with them.
  
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• I have two Red Oscars that have recently started moving the rocks in the aquarium like they may be starting to spawn. If they do spawn , would they eat the fry ?
  
  No. Almost all Cichlids are very good parents and will raise and defend their brood until they are ready to spawn again, at which time, the fry should be removed. In some cases, if the tank is very large, the parents will allow several broods to co-exist with them.
  
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• What considerations should I consider when thinking about buying a Pirhana?
  
  The main considerations to consider with Piranha are: 1) Tank size - Piranha grow large. anything smaller than a 55 gallon tank is too small. 2) Schooling behavior - Piranha need to school and sould be kept in groups of at least five. 3) A well-established tank - Do not use Piranha to start a new tank. You should condition the tank with small fish like Zebra Danios, then add the Piranha after about two months. 4) Tank mates - Piranha may not be kept with any other fish except for Exodon paradoxus, which should also be kept in small schools. 6) Lots of cover - Piranhas are actually shy fish and will need lots of rockwork and/or plastic plants to dart into when they're startled. 5) Live food - Piranha need at least one feeding a week of live fish, and diet should be supplemented with frozen beefheart and other solid frozen fish foods. Feeding only live fish will eventually cause dietary deficiencies. 6) Clean water and good filtration with a temperature of 78 to 80 degrees F. It is important to remember that Piranha are large Characins, related to Tetras, so they prefer a neutral pH and soft water. 7) Piranha are one of the most-abused fish sold today, as very few people who keep them bother to learn anything about them. Our suggestion is to buy a book and do a little reading on the species.
  
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• I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RED TAILED SHARKS.
  
  The Red-tailed Shark, Epalzeorhynchus bicolor, formerly known as Labeo bicolor is not a shark at all, but is a cousin of the Loaches and Botias. They come from SE Asia, particularly Thailand. They make good community fish in tanks that contain fish that are mildly-aggressive and are the same size or larger. They can be very aggressive toward one another, or similar species, and will sometimes attack smaller peaceful species, especially as they reach sexual maturity. Some hobbysists have reported that if they are kept in large groups of five or more, they tend not to be as agressive. They prefer soft, slightly acid water, but can adapt to most aquarium water conditions. They will eat almost any fish food, but prefer freez-dried or frozen foods over flake. They do eat some algae, especially on plant leaves.
  
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• Can you put a male Betta in a tropical tank with other fish, but not other Bettas?
  
  Yes, you can keep a Betta in a community tank, with some very important precautions. You should not keep most species of Gouramis or any slow-moving, long-finned fish. We have seen Bettas attack long-finned Guppies and Platys. You should also not keep any aggressive fish or fish that are known to be fin-nippers such as many Barbs.
  
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• I am moving and need to know the best way to go about moving my aquarium.I have a twenty gallon tall tank with sharks, algae eaters and an eel.
  
  It all depends on how far the move is. If it will take you more than 12 hours to move, meaning that the fish will be in transit for more than 12 hours, you should give away your fish - PERIOD. The only way to accomplish this successfully is to bring the fish to a store that can pack them in bags with pure oxygen, and without this resource, the fish will not make it alive. However, if the move will take less time than that, you should do the following. Buy a plastic bucket with a snap-on lid that will hold a total volume of about 1/2 your tank. First, rinse the bucket with tap water, then drain enough clean water from your aquarium into the bucket to fill it half-way. For larger tanks, use a larger bucket and fill it one quarter. Do not attempt to take more than ten gallons of water per bucket. Water is heavy! Then remove all the decorations in the tank. Catch the fish (USE TWO NETS FOR THIS!), and place them in the bucket with the clean water. Stir the gravel up into the remaining water in the tank, and discard the resulting dark cloudyy water. Remove the gravel. It is not a good idea to try to carry a tank with wet gravel in it for safety reasons. Do not try to clean all the decorations and algae on the tank or rinse the gravel in tap water. The stress of the move will be bad enough on the fish. Don't make matters worse by getting everything squeaky clean. Time is critical. Once the fish are in the bucket, you have six to twelve hours to get them in the aquarium at the new location. At the new location, put the gravel and decorations in the tank FIRST, then add the old water and fish to the aquarium GENTLY! Then slowly fill the tank with water of the same temperature (and salinity for you marine hobbyists), adding new water no faster than one inch every ten minutes. Make sure you use a good water conditioner in the new water. We strongly advise moving all of your furniture on one day, and taking an entire day to move your tank.
  
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