ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

hi all

hopefully someone may be able to help me, as in my introduction post i am getting my first 2 zebra plecs on saturday, i am unaware of the sex of them yet, a chap came in to my work today to clean our tank and i mentioned to him i was getting them, he said to be very wary as he had two and they attacked each other till they eventually died, i do have separate tanks for them but ideally would like to have them together, is this not a good idea? does anyone have any experiences of such attacking taking place?

thanks tom

Hypans can be agressive so give them lots of hiding spots and caves so they have plenty of choice and don't have to argue over the same spot. I have had some fight to the death but mostly its peace and harmony so don't worry. Get some pics of your new zebs once they've settled in

ok cool thanbls for your reply joby, will buy some caves for them

Basically males, as they age, will begin to fight over territory and then for the right to spawn which is also a somewhat territorial thing. While females don't claim caves, as they mature they will definitely fight about who is the alpha female who then gets to spawn with the alpha male.

An interesting aside- the alpha male may not necessarily be the largest male.

ok thanks for your help

have set up a tank with 2 terracotta plant pots for either to hide in until i can find some proper caves for them, do you think this will be ok

Looked at the pictures of your guys and they appear to be very young. I placed 6-8 caves in my 15 gallon tank when I got my 4 that were just over an inch each. They would all share 1 or 2 caves. They are very slow growing plecs so I'd say you have plenty of time to shop for caves.

ok thanks YSR50 gonna get some in a couple of weeks, have bought some black corregated piping for now to replicate some caves, thye prefer the bogwood by looks of it though