ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

Ive heard rumours of farm breeding of zebras in indonesia and that there should be alot more available soon.

Anyone else got any info on this?

Wouldn't surprise me, Indonesia has been and continues to be a massive source of expoted tropical fish. Stands to reason, they would see $$$ and set up ponds for zebs.

It is almost not commercially feasible to spawn zebras. The numbers of breeders you need, the amount of time and the size of the spawns etc. etc. make it almost impossible to pull off.

This rumor seem to come around a couple of times a year it seems.

Check out slipperylittlesuckers.com then go to articles and zebra pleco breeding, this guy certainly is having a crack at it!

How many tanks full of zebras does it take to become a commercial venture anyway? Im sure there are quite a few nutters with loads of tanks all over the world.

Hi
I'm probably sticking me neck out here but IMO there most likely to be someone TRYING to breed zebras in large amounts in the world somewhere ,but from that site and from those pics show me no evidence of breeding any fish in any way(no fish in line of tanks for a start)just empty.
Its one thing to say they are BREEDING LARGE AMOUNTS and a long long long way from saying SUCCESSFULLY BREEDING LARGE AMOUNTS which in my eyes is something completely different.
Until anybody comes up with some hard evidence of this going on I WILL treat it as a rumor nothing more nothing less.

All this seems to be doing is generating them more hits on the site.

Jerry

Well work backwards. Lets say you wanted to sell 5,000 zebras worldwide every year. Lets also assume you will have 10 surviving fry that reach selling size in 6-8 months.

Assuming you can get your breeders going, and that they will spawn for about 7-8 months and pause for about 5. A trio should priduce about 6-7 spawns a season. So that is 60-70 fish/trio/year. You need 72-84 trios to have a shot at 5,000 year. Now you have to expext some deaths and problems, so you probable need to have 5-10 spare trios?.

So to get those 5,000 sellable fish per year you kind need 77-94 trios. thats 231- 282 sexed adult zebras to start. Moreover, if you have been at it for some time, you bought zebras when they were about at their peak prices. Finding 188 fms and 94 males would probably have cost you about 100k, maybe more. The add costs for breeding tanks etc, space they are in operating costs for electricity, growout tanks etc etc etc.

How long would it then take to get them to begn their spawning cycle? How many breeders will you need to replace each year as some will surely die and getting F2 fry from your original stock to breeding size/age is a few years away. The odds are good your first sale of fry will be about 15 -18 months from when you get the original adults.

And if anything goes horrible wrong and you suffer large losses of breeders and/or fry..........

Considering that today one can find illegally taken wild zeberas at 1.5-2 inches for $140, how much do smaller F1s sell for?

Sorry I do not buy the commercially farmed zebra plecostories.

Hi
I,m not up on this mass breeding lark but nobody has mentioned cross breeding which is my fear will happen seeing that mass zebra breeding is almost not viable to do.
That means you will get a new fish that looks very much like the zeb look if not better and they will probably produce more fry in less time to make more money.
I don't think there is anything stopping this happening soon and will flood the market probably at a much lower price,would people be more likely to buy them with no other fish like pure zebs available to buy or to highly priced.?
Is this is another reason why we need to keep breeding pure zebs in the hobby and keep hybrids out of the picture of zebra plecos.

Jerry

Didnt know it was possible to cross breed zebras! What can they be crossbred with? Has anyone succeded in this or is it just a presumption?
So I need £100,000 to start a zebra pleco farm.
Wonder what the bank manager will say when he asks what the loan is for!?

Hi
I was hoping someone might know that as well if you can crossbreed.I think some will give it a go though.
You don't keep different types of the same species in the same tank when breeding just think about it.
There are other types of looking zebs already could this be the start ????.
Don't bother asking your bank manager for a loan I have tried already he turned me down as he thought it to be a little bit to fishy...

Jerry

Dreams, dreams, dreams

I remember someone in Germany crossbred Those: L46xL236. L46XL174.

The only problem with that is the 236 and 174 are much harder to find than zebras and way more pricey.

I think the person who did it have all of them and just wanted to see how the hybrids look like.

Hi
Hoping not to give ANYBODY any ideas here but If someone had a pair of 46s ready to breed and using the female and male 236s or 174s of breeding condition and swapped the eggs around just before they were fertilized by the male(I know this is a very long shot timing wise or disruptive to the fish)Or if not could they be fertilized by collecting sperm from other fish and doing it by way of syringe or alike more sort of lab conditions?.
This last way could be away to crossbreed (not sure what
)but something not so compatible with 46s to achieve larger egg counts.
This is 2 of the ways I think they might achieve crossbreeding other than normal method.
Is this a possibility?.

Jerry

Hi
Don't know why nobody has replied to the above is this a taboo subject ?.
I was only curious not for the fact that I will not be doing any of it.
I know quite a few moderators have been on this site since I put it there but this of all places must be the place to talk about possibilities that may or may not happen in the breeding of zebs.

Not done to offend.

Thanks Jerry