pregnant freshwater angel fish

Question
I've had a freshwater small striped angel fish for approx 3 yrs. 2 months ago I put 3 baby angels in the tank. they are now almost adult size. my large, older angel is looking very pregnant and even spent 3 days upsidedown, but is now rightside up and eating a ton.. I also put a Japanese goldfish in the tank to eat polutants, but if the angel gives birth I don't want the goldfish to eat the babies. do you know how long the angel with be pregnant so I know when to get the goldfish out? it's been about 2 weeks of odd behavior and belly swelling.

Answer
Hi Kim;

This may sound harsh to you at first, but you really should get that goldfish out of there right away. Someone gave you some very bad advice. He is actually adding huge amounts of pollutants, not removing them. Goldfish are VERY messy fish. He may be sucking on the gravel and eating a lot of food but if there is that much to eat, you are overfeeding and it means he puts out a lot of waste when he's finished. Goldfish are also cold water fish and your angels are tropical so they are just not compatible. It's a bad situation all the way around. A single goldfish needs at least a 10 gallon tank all for itself. You might look into getting one and move him to his own tank. Here is more information about goldfish and their needs;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

Angels are egg layers so she would have to have a male paired with her. They would be fighting, staying close to each other and picking a spawning site if that's what is going on. I really don't think that's it though. She would not be swimming upside down from having eggs in her. Something else is wrong. I would suspect an intestinal problem causing bloating and/or constipation. It's probably from overfeeding and can come and go. Cut back on regular foods and give all the fish peas and frozen brine shrimp. Get some frozen green peas, thaw them, peel and break into chunks. They usually like it and it helps digestion. Frozen brine shrimp is available at most fish stores. If one fish is having trouble, the rest may soon too. Proper amounts of food are very important. Feed your fish once a day but only add enough food that the fish can totally consume it from all areas of the tank in less than 5 minutes. Your angels will pick up food off the bottom but you don't want it to stay there for more than 5 minutes. Your fish only need to actually feed actively for 5 minutes every day. Longer than that and the fish can become constipated, not digest fully and the tank becomes polluted.

Keep the water in the tank very clean by changing 25% of the water and vacuuming the gravel every week. Remove 25% of the tank water EVERY week. Adding water for evaporation doesn't count. Water has to be removed manually and replaced with fresh. You didn't mention what size your tank is but with 4 angels in there it would need to be 40 gallons or larger and 18" tall or taller for their fins to grow properly. Those guys need lots of room to grow to their adult size and stay healthy. Your tank is a "closed system" so any food you put in there stays in there either as waste or decaying food until you vacuum it out. Your filter may process it biologically, but the end result of that process has to be removed by partial water changes every week. If it is too small and overfeeding has been going on, that's probably what's wrong with your older angel.

Here are some web pages about angels and breeding them;

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwangelfishes.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~photofish/index.html#top
http://websvirginia.com/angels/abfaq.htm#CONTENTS
http://fins.actwin.com/species/angelfish.html
http://members.aol.com/angelbook/angel1.htm

Let me know if you need more help. I hope they all do okay...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins