ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

i'm not very experienced as a fishkeeper (only having some danios and tiger barbs for 6m+). i'm very interested in zebra plecos, but i want to get it right (although there's no substitute for experience).

are there any plecos that can "emulate" the l46 in view of cheaper cost, but similar characteristics and requirements?

many thanks

Any of the hypans will give you a bit of experience. Try L66 or L333 as they are easy toc come by and are a reasonable price for a juvenile

Like the above said, any hypan species would work great as a starter Pleco. So which ever one is cheapest/easiest to obtain would work great for that purpose.

I started by keeping L260 and L66 before going into zebs, in the end what I found to be most helpful with a zeb "emulator" is getting confident in oneself about keeping hypans.

shamrock wrote:i'm not very experienced as a fishkeeper (only having some danios and tiger barbs for 6m+). i'm very interested in zebra plecos, but i want to get it right (although there's no substitute for experience).

are there any plecos that can "emulate" the l46 in view of cheaper cost, but similar characteristics and requirements?

many thanks

Hey a fellow northamptoner

I have always found Zebras to be pretty hardy tbh, like any fish if you keep the tank water stable and to the correct conditions they should do fine. Try and get into the habit of testing your PH, GH, N03 ect early on until you get a feel for how stable your tank is and how often you may need to water change. If your looking to try some plecs in the mean time have a look at Leopard Frog Plecos L134 (they're very nice!)