Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

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tiger27924
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Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

Post by tiger27924 »

So, I have 10 adult, wild caught (as described by the seller but I didn't personally collect them) zebras in a 55 tank seen below:

Image

There is one individual (the dominant male I'm assuming) that has taken up residence in the smallest cave in the whole tank on the left side. He fits in the tank but can't turn around I don't think. There is another zebra (sub dominant male probably) that spends time under a slate "lean-to" on the same side of the tank as the dominant male. The other 8 spend all their time under the driftwood in the middle. My concerns are as follows:

-If a female does want to breed, I'm afraid the chosen cave is too small. Should I remove it, thus forcing the male to choose a larger cave?
-Can any of you think of a reason why none of the other zebras are taking up a cave??? I've got 10 caves in there and none of them except for the smallest one is being utilized...so much work on the caves but no appreciation :roll:
-I've read that zebras usually hang out together somewhat, but is there any reason that none of them appear to use the right side of the tank that I should be thinking about??? (Like flow, or cave setup?)

I feed them at night and turn off the power head and biowheel until I wake up in the morning. There is plenty of feces and the food is usually completely gone so I know they're eating well (Ken's fish sticks right now). I'm open to all suggestions (like maybe I should move the top caves to ground level?...or maybe some of the caves should face toward the back or sides of the tank rather than all facing toward the front??). Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make sure my zebras are as happy as can be and wanted some tips from the pros. Thanks in advance :)
Tony
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Rob
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Re: Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

Post by Rob »

Hi tiger

Just a quick one, (as I am about to feed our youngest son), but what hights are the larger caves? When a male decides to find a suitable cave, he will find one suitable to him and his exact measurements. In most cases they like to be able to jam themselves in by extending their pectorial and dorsal fins. The ideal height for the caves should be just a bit smaller than the height of the male with dorsal fin fully extended. If it is big enough to get the male right up to the back and he can strech out his pectorial fins, just letting them touch the sides, then don't worry. He can squeeze a female in there by sitting diagonally from top to bottom. i.e. on pectorial fin poointing down and one poiting toa top corner.

It looks to me that the other caves are quite high? If the fish are younger males they may not feel confident in the caves, therefore looking for crevices under rocks etc. Either that you have a tank full of females :-)

Rob
The perfect white lie..."Of course I didn't pay that much for the fish honey"
har_eh
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Re: Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

Post by har_eh »

Agree with rob here, their might be some other factors too like the light intensity. Wild-caught fish are used to darkness and when they're suddenly thrown into a very bright tank this could be "shocking" for them. Maybe you could try keeping the lights off for a few days and see if their is a difference in behavior?
Some other factor could be the noise the air-pump produces, personally I prefer diffusers just for that reason.
If all this doesn't work you could try adding some other fish to draw them out, these don't have to be zebra's but maybe an acistrus?(that's what I have with mine)
Good luck and let's hope they come out for some pics next time :loldude:
tiger27924
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Re: Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

Post by tiger27924 »

Thanks for the suggestions. I think you're right about my caves being too large based on your description of an appropriate size to suit an adult zebra. :(
I'll just have to build some smaller caves to swap out for the larger ones.
I only turn the lights on for a few hours a day, and even then I have placed window screen between the light and the glass which helps dim them down quite a bit. A few days ago I ordered some cold cathode lights after reading some topics on this forum and have since built a moonlight setup. It actually works really well as the fish seem unphased by these lights. It amazes me how they come out to scavenge for food and harass each other as soon as the "day" lights go off and these cathode lights are turned on.
Two days ago I added 10 red cherry shrimp to help keep the tank clean and give them something to look at/observe out in the open. So far they don't seem to care either way.
From your posts and other's that I have read it would appear that I have the obvious "dominant" male, a pretty obvious "subdominant" male, and then hopefully the rest (8) are all females :loldude: But most likely there's a couple immature males as well :angelnot:

They've been eating Ken's fish sticks no problem, and last night I gave them cut up, thawed bloodworms for the first time and they definitely appreciated it. Any other foods you would recommend I be feeding them to help condition for spawning? I've read a lot of suggestions but I don't think I could make the gel food that's so popular on some threads. I feed a mix of brineshrimp sticks and spirulina sticks (the earthworm sticks were on backorder).

Again, thanks for the suggestions and help. So far I couldn't be happier with these guys. 8)
Tony
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Rob
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Re: Question About Behavior/Cave Setup

Post by Rob »

No worries, good luck

Rob
The perfect white lie..."Of course I didn't pay that much for the fish honey"
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