Tis still the season

[TwoTankAmin]

I am still smarting over causing the loss of 2/3 spawns from the amazing tripple they pulled off over the holidays. I guess they felt sorry for me because almost as soon as the first of the tripple that survived were kicked out to find their own digs, the alpha male was back at it and, I am happy to report, is now atop eggs again.

There is no activity in any of the other caves, but I am not complaining .

[civicr]

your so lucky.well done

[TwoTankAmin]

I could not agree more, I am probably the luckiest person out there in terms of getting spawns. I do nothing but put the fish in the glass boxes and add well water. I honestly believe a well trained chimp could do most of what I do, except for ordering supplies online. I have a credit card and I doubt a chimp could get one, though I am not certain of that.

I wish I could claim I knew some arcane aquatic secrets or that I was descended from Neptune or that I had several post grad degrees in Ichthyology. The fact is I am lucky- at least with fish.

[Zebrapl3co]

This is nice to know. If you haven't done so, start taking notes and keep track of which female spawn what, number of eggs, and mark those dates on the calendar. You might want to take your water parameter reading as well. Hmm, lets see what else would help. Tank dimention, current if any, position of cave and the number of adult in your colony. These information won't tell you much now, but they will help you keep track of things for you. At a future date when you've gain enough experience, all you need to do is take a look at your track of records and you can say "Ah hah, so that's how it work!".

If you don't mind sharing, I was wondering if you can answer these questions:
- how big is your tank?
- currents if any, do you use a power head with air, river setup and what kind of lighting if any at all?
- F1 or WC
- the number of adults in your colony and sexes?
- the location of your tank in your house? (top floor, condo, or basement)
- humidity of your house if you've taken any.
- where is the closest location of a water source from your home?
ie., do you live next to a river, lake or ocean?

Thanks,
Peter

Edit: oh and one more minor thing, the kind of food you've been feeding them. Keep track of this as well.

[TwoTankAmin]

I have kept a fairly in depth "log" of my experiences from just shortly before I bough the breeding group to the present on the fishaholoics site (barbie's site).

I am able to track which males are spawning but not which females are involved. What I can say is that since acquiring the group I have had about 30 spawns and only lost two- from a recent tripple spawning.

I have never been sure of the sexes. At this time I have 11 in the colony and am 100% certain 3 are males. I am not sure if there are more males so the female count is 8, or fewer if there is another male.

The house is a split level, no basement nor attic, We do run a humidifier in the heating system set at about 35%. Water is from our own well on the property. I am about 25-30 miles from the coast and about 15 from the Hudson River. I am also at an altitude of about 650 ft above sea level and any lakes are a few 100 feet lower than that. The tank is in my bedroom.

[Zebrapl3co]

Wow, I wasn't expecting that kind of detailed answer. Thanks.
Hmm ... looks like it's a completely different setup from mine. I was hopping to spot something by looking at the macro surrounding for clues, but there is absolutly nothing similar between your sorrounding compare to mine.
I've breed some where in the vicimity of 25 spawns. It's probably more, but I didn't keep any records of those earlier breedings. It was a sad period for me at the time.

No wonder you've been getting so many spawns. Wow 8 females is alot of spawning opportunities.
I've been wanting to say something when you post you had a tripple spawn, but didn't want to ruin your mood, because I am still not %100 sure myself. But from my own observation, the queen female does get jealous of other females' spawning. She will go into the cave and interupt the other female if she laid her eggs too close to the timming of her own brood. I caught her doing that twice when I match 2 females to one male. However, that quickly came to an end when my queen got strangled by a 2 year old nylon string that got lose from my driftwood. Yeah, I know, stupid mistake on my part. Anyway, maybe this brief period of observation might help you in this kind of situation.

As for my setup and location. I live like 100 or 200 meter from a fresh water lake. It's just so happens that it's right at the mouth of a river running into the lake as well. Humidity level of my house is around %30 -%60. My tanks are in the basement. I suspect that this kind of surrounding helps me to trigger the zebra to breed almost at will. Rather than waiting for a storm or even worst, waiting for the season to change as some have claim.
I've put my hand in to stop my zebras from breeding on serveral occasions because i don't have enought tanks to house anymore zebras and I want to give myself and the zebras a rest.
I was able to re-trigger them to breeding again by simply going through a short 1 week fresh and 1 week dry season. Some times, they would catch me off guard by waiting an extra week or two before they spawn again.
However, your setting and surrounding have blown my theory to trash. Thank you for your reply. I guess I still have alot to figure out.

Peter