here's a close-up....

Any chance you can plant it? I sure would be a LOT happier. Otherwise a pot at least double that size would be nice... bet there is almost NO- soil left in that (break it and you will see a root ball exactly the size and shape of the inside of the pot). Moving these is easy (except the weight and liklihood of branch damage)... root damage is the least of your worries.

Ants rarely carry aphids to aloes since aloes are resistant to aphids. However, they commonly carry mealy bug, particularly in shadier conditions. Most insecticides will kill both, but it's the ants you be constantly battling to stay way.

Very hard to overwater one of these plants, but particularly in your pot... I would water it daily until you get it someplace better to put its roots.

What you have created is a Bonsai tree Aloe. It could go one like that for years with a simple root pruning and adding fresh soil. Or like the Dr. said,use a bigger pot.
I haven't had any problems with A. barberae picking up pests..but a close relative known as 'Medusa' will. I have to blast jets of water into the leaf crowns to clean out pests and any leaf matter from the rest of the yard.
Also..A. barberae will get those orange leaves and black spots when stressed by cold also. If they aren't green,it means they are unhappy.

Thanks again for eveyone's input... I have been watering more frequently... Since its in the back yard of our house, which is entirely closed off with a wall, I am not sure what to do as I have to somehow lift it over the wall to plant it in the ground or I have to put it in an even bigger pot, which itself will be unmanageable (the current one is pretty big). Plus I dont think even three or four people could lift this high enough to put in a new pot... Not sure what to do...

I did notice this morning that, when looking from out second story, all the leaves are very yellow on top, which is hard to see from underneath... Is that inadequate water as people suggested earlier?

thanks again...

Wow, you need to find some new 'people'... I am sure that plant is liftable (spent my entire summer lifting heavy Aloes and palms, and some bigger than that one)... two people could do it I am sure. Smash the pot with a hammer and lift it into a new pot. ... or better still, plant it. Once planted, it will quickly grow to a size that 4 people will not be able to budge it... but it's not there yet.

It looks very stressed. If it was happy it would have more leaves and they would be mostly green with a little yellow and red highlighting on the margins.

On the right hand side is a happy barberae:
{{gwi:641543}}

Thanks for the input... I think the tree and its pot are larger than they appear in that picture... I had to shift it in the pot recently and when I raised the possibility that it may need to be lifted, they guy that I hired didnt think it was possible with just the two of us... That pot is far bigger than I can handle alone when empty and would take a sledgehammer to break.

If our back yard is totally walled in, I assume it would be very expensive to hire a crane to lift it out... An additional issue is that I live in a canyon and our front yard has some very tall (100'?) tree cover, thus I am concerned it would not get enough sun if I tried to plant it in the front, which is the only area it could be planted in the ground...

When you say it seems "stressed" - does that mean it needs more water, nutrients, light??? What is recommended if it doesnt get repotted immediately?

bump

No,a regular hammer could smash that terra cotta.The plant itself wont be light,but like the Dr. said,its not a real back breaker. A larger pot isn't hard to find. And if you want to plant it in ground...a simple dolly could wheel that around easy and then to where you want to plant it.
And really,just tip it over, put foot on lip of pot, pull back..and it should slide out. Water the plant first ,take a sip yourself if its L.A. hot-lol..easy as that. And you didn't have to break the pot.