| Frequently Asked Questions | ||
|
Home
|
and other useful tidbits of information E-mail me your questions and I will try to answer them on this page. I'm not a world expert by any means, but I have a fair amount of experience, and have read a lot of information from many source. Here are some of the questions I hear often. Q: How can I tell a male angelfish from a female angelfish? A: It is very difficult to tell by appearances. I do not even try to make guesses on juvenile angelfish. On adult angels, the females is more likely to have a rounded "U" shaped abdomen, especially when she is close to spawning. The male is more likely to have a narrower "V" shaped abdomen. However, this is no guarantee. The only sure way to tell is when they spawn. The female lays the eggs, and the male fertilizes them. The female also has a wider breeding tube, whereas the male's breeding tube is narrower and more pointed. Q: I had two angelfish, and one died after two years. The survivor seems very lonely. Should I get another one? How can I keep the first one from being aggressive toward the new one? A: Your older angel will probably be very happy to have a companion. Often if you introduce a juvenile into the tank with the older one, the older one will not feel that the younger one is a threat to its territory and will accept it. Another trick you can try is to temporarily move the original one out of the aquarium into a bucket or another aquarium. Rearrange the architecture in the aquarium, put the new angel in, and in a little bit put the original angel back in. This will break up the structure of the original territory and make the older angel less likely to act territorial. However, sometimes the older angelfish will not accept a new tank mate, so be prepared with another tank. Another trick is to temporarily move the older angelfish to a temporary tank, place the new one in the angelfish tank, then after a few days reintroduce the old one. Q: How many angelfish can I keep in a 10 gallon aquarium? A: One adult angelfish. You need at least 10 gallons per adult angelfish. If you have other kinds of fish in the tank, allow extra space for them. But your angel will look so much nicer in a larger aquarium, so why not get a bigger aquarium to begin with? Q: At what age to angelfish start to breed? A: The youngest pair I had started spawning when they had just turned 6 months of age. More commonly, angelfish will start pairing and spawning somewhere around the age of 8 months to a year. Q: How do I know when a pair is ready to spawn? A: Often a pair will work on cleaning an area for two or three days before they actually spawn. They may choose a large leaf, a lift tube, the glass wall of the tank, or a piece of slate. When you see them working fixedly to clean an area and the breeding tubes start to show, then they will probably spawn within 24 hours. Sometimes a pair will engage in courtship behavior that looks like fighting. They may lock lips, or may swim tight circles around each other. Other pairs seem to peacefully get on with spawning without aggressive courting. Q: What do I do in a power outage? A: Depending on how long the power outage is, your major concerns are oxygen for the fish, and maybe adequate heat. If the power outage causes your heating system to shut down in the middle of winter, you can cover the aquarium with a blanket to conserve heat. To preserve oxygen, let the tank temperature fall a few degrees - cooler water hold oxygen better. Don't feed the fish - let their metabolisms slow down a bit. Also, bacteria in the water will consume oxygen rapidly as they work to break biodegradable materials such as uneaten fish food or fish wastes. Keep an eye on your fish, especially if you have any crowded aquariums. You can do a partial water change if a tank looks stressed and if you still have some warm water in your water heater. You can also aerate the water by using a cup to scoop up water and pour it back into the tank. If you have tight fitting lids, open the lids to allow better exchange of oxygen with the surface of the water. Q: One of my angelfish has a cloudy eye. What caused this, and what do I do about it? A: The cloudy eye is almost certainly from injury during fighting. Even a devoted pair of angels will have spats, and one or of both may nip at the partner's eyes. If you have a large tank, or a community tank, you may want to treat the affected fish in a smaller hospital tank. Injured eyes are very sensitive to light, so it would be kinder and less stressful for the fish to leave the tank lights off for a few days, too. Sometimes just water changes and adding a little aquarium salt (about 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons) is all that is needed. I have become a great believer in Melafix, which is a natural product that promotes healing and inhibits bacterial growth. If the eye doesn't start to clear up in 2 or 3 days, you might want to add an antibiotic. Q: What does it mean when two adult angelfish swim in tight, fast circles around each other and seem to be locking their mouths together? A: This behavior looks aggressive, but it is may actually be courting behavior. It means that you have a male and a female who have paired with each other. The next behavior to expect is that they will start to clean a surface to spawn on, such as a lift tube, a wide leaf of a plant, or a spawning slate. If the behavior persists, or if they seem to be aggressively attacking each other, you may have a male trying to defend his territory and his chosen mate from another male. Q: How long do angelfish live? A: Angel fish should live at least 4-5 years. If you are lucky and have good quality fish, and give them exquisite care, they may live as long as 7-8 years. I have heard that they can live up to 10 years. My oldest angelfish lived a little over 8 years old and was in good health until the last couple of weeks before she died, at which point she began swimming a little off kilter and not eating real well. Q: How long do angelfish keep breeding? A: I have heard of one female angel that was still laying eggs at age 10 years. I had a breeding pair of marbles that spawned regularly until they were almost five years old. Q: If I have lots of filtration, and the water looks clear, do I need to do water changes? Can I just add water to replace evaporation losses? A: Angelfish are fairly sensitive to water quality, and need frequent water changes. Many impurities are invisible and do not discolor the water, but they will affect angelfish health. Change out about one-fourth of your tank water every week to keep them healthy. If the fish seem livelier and have a better appetite after a water change, that is a sure indication that water quality was degrading. Q: How can I painlessly euthanize a sick angelfish? A: Sadly, sometimes a fish may be sick or injured enough that the only kind thing is to put it down. I usually have to cull a few fry with deformities (birth defects) from most spawns. If I didn't, I'd be over-run with unsellable, unbreedable fish. (I already have a handful of fish in this category, occupying valuable tank space.) The kindest way I have found so far is to use about 1 cc (or about 1/2 teaspoon) of clove oil, mix it with a few cc's (a couple of tablespoons) of something alcoholic, and stir really well into a gallon of water. The recipe I originally found said to use vodka, but I didn't have any, so I used vermouth. The alcohol helps the clove oil dissolve better in the water. Use tank-temperature water so you don't shock your fish, and gently place the fish in the clove-oil water. Fry swim will become unconscious and die within a few seconds. Adult fish may take a little longer, possible up to a few minutes. Another popular method of euthanizing fish is to place them in a small container of water in the freezer - but this would take a while, and seems unnecessarily prolonged. I have never used this method. Q: My angelfish just spawned on a filter lift tube. What do I do? A: That depends on whether you want to raise angelfish. If your fish are in a community tank, and you don't want to raise babies, do nothing. Chances are the eggs will all be gone by morning. If you want to try your hand at raising angelfish, you need to give them a tank of their own. If you are lucky and the parents want to raise their own babies, then you need to give them a bare-bottom tank (no gravel for fry to get lost in), and sponge filters (they don't suck up the young fry). If you want to hatch the eggs separately, then it doesn't matter so much whether you have gravel or what kind of filter you have. What you need to do is to offer your pair some convenient spawning sites that will allow you to remove the eggs. I use pieces of slate. My marble pair often prefers a plastic Amazon sword plant. I can just slide the leaf off its stem to remove the eggs. You can also use a length of PVC pipe (3/4" or 1" diameter), suspended from the top of the tank. (Drill a hole near one end of the PVC, and use as S hook to hang it in the tank.)
How to contact me: Tamar Stephens Mailing address: P.O. Box 83495, Fairbanks, AK 99708 Street Address: 1229 Bunnell Street, Apt. B, Fairbanks, AK 99701 Phone: (907) 451-9357 e-mail: tstephens@gci.net
Last updated February 12, 2006. |