Everything you ever wanted to say about "Zebra luvin", but didn't because you thought everyone would take the mickey! Plus general topics for discussion including everything from what you feed them to your personal experiences.
I was just thinking about the age of fish hence the title- OAP- Old Age Pensioner !
What is the accepted age of a long lived Zebra?
A friend has had one for oh it must be 10 years - its always lived alone in a tank with some guppies or other standard fish never suffered any ills and still seems in fine form.
I just have the one zebra which must be around 5 years old, I lost my other two after I changed a filter - prob still my worst day in fishkeeping
Just wondered what members thought was the max we can expect from these wonderful fish.
Thanks
Well ... considering that it takes them around 3 - 4 years to reach breeding stage. I won't think that it would be a supprise to see them live to 10 years. The only question I am wondering is at what age to they stop breeding.
I have a fully grown big adult male; he is probably the biggest adult zebra I've seen, but he doesn't breed though. And that's not because there isn't a willing female. The female actually goes into his cave, but the guy just takes off. And this happens with two different females. He rather spend the night camping out than with the ladies. So I can only draw my conclusion that he's either too old to do it, or he's gay.
Do you have any pics of him? How big is he?, the largest and oldest zebra i have ever seen was only about 4 inches, yet i hear and have heard people claiming the fully grown old adult males can get to 6 inches.
I have also known of people to say that they have some L46 that are about 15 years old, but as they were wild caught, seems to me almost impossible to tell.
As with pretty much any animal/ fish/ human, there is a optimum period for reproducing, and eventually a cut off time, when they are no longer physicaly able too.
Lets just hope when anyone has a spawning pair/ group they continue for as long as they can!
I know a local breeder that had his zebras that are over 16 years old by now. When I saw them before, they look like fine zebras. Now when I saw them, their stripes are no longer straight. They are still spawning.
Ooooo, wow, now that is a very old zebra. I don't think my old zebra is anywhere near that old. Oh-oh! I guess that would mean he's gay too! LOL
Hmm, thanks for sharing. I'll see if I can get a picture of him this Friday and I have to clear some of the baby zebras out for sale. This also give me a bit of hope that I may yet get a third pair of WC breeding. It's getting increasingly difficult to buy WC zebras from where I am living. Basically, most of my WC stocks comes from people who have given up on trying to breed them.
A number of years ago I was supposed to get 8 wild caughts right off the plane. A friend worked at a wholesale/import place. One afternoon he came into the chat we used and asked for my phone number- he was very excited. When I called he reported he had 12 of the biggest zebras he had ever seen fresh from the airport. he said not one was under 4+ inches and some were about 5 maybe a tad over.
I sent out a check and arranged to go get them at the end of the week. Unfortunately the next day they began to die. Apparently the shipper overdosed hypno in the bags. When all was said and done i out of 20 received lived beyond the next day.
Clearly in the wild in the past they have gotten big. If I remember correctly this was in 2002 and the price for the fish would have been $40 each including my share of transport costs.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
