Introducing apistomaster

Hmmm...what else can I say!
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apistomaster
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Introducing apistomaster

Post by apistomaster »

Hello everyone,
I finally can say I have joined the ranks of Zebra pleco keepers and would be breeders. I just aquired 5 juveniles of about 1-1/8 inches total lengh. They are from 8 year old wild parents, therefore, F1 generation fish.
I swapped a ton of adult and 2 inch turquoise discus for my starter colony of zebras.
I have been breeding wild and domestic discus since 1969 and most other fish for about 40 years but it has just been this past year that I have begun collecting and trying to learn how to breed the fancy plecos, Red Rhinoloricaria, and Sturisoma. I've been raising common bushynoses for some time.
Only the African Lake Cichlids are fish I've never worked with. When I think Africa I think Killies. I have been a member of the American Killiefish Association off and on since 1969 and have bred about 200 species of Killies.

My current major project is to try to breed wild Heckel Discus and with help from brewmaster15 and tratore, I have been behind the formation of the new subforum, "THe Heckel Project" on www.simplydiscus.com.

All I can do for now is patiently grow my new baby Zebras up and practice on my collection of about 10 species of Hypancistrus and Peckoltias.
Larry Waybright
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Plastic Mac
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Post by Plastic Mac »

Welcome to ZP Apistomaster,

I hope you find the site useful.

Plastic Mac
rich1988oxford
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Post by rich1988oxford »

welcome and good luck with the juv zebs
apistomaster
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Post by apistomaster »

Thank you for the greetings.
These little guys sure do make themselves scarce.
I placed them in an established ten gallon tank with my Corydoras duplicareous(another shy one) and their is also a self sustaining colony of cherry shrimp. I have to pick up a small piece of bog wood to do a head count.
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Post by TwoTankAmin »

My experience has been that the smaller the fry, the greater the tendency to huddle together and hide. as they gain size they tend to spread out more and also to come out in the open more. In my fry tanks the only way to get an accurate count is to remove all the decor and sometimes the heaters and filter tubes in order to do so.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
apistomaster
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Post by apistomaster »

Hi TwoTank,

Knowing they will somewhat ougrow the huddling under cover is good to hear. I know the adults come out a bit more than than now.
They are juvies of ~1-1/8 so that they hide now came as no surprise. They are defenseless at this size. They are very gregarious. All five stay within about a three inch diameter area under their piece off wood.

I feel very fortunate that my new Zebras are F1. I plan on picking up more from unrelated lineages and closely tracking them so as to avoid sibling inbreeding. It may take some time but I will do my best to maintain several lines and exchanging with others especially where it is advantageous for all parties to get opposite sexes where our collectons' sexes are too heavily skewed.

I understand that there are already deformed strains being sold in the EU that are a "bulldog or bullnosed" zebras. I definitely don't want to contribute to developments like that. Despite the relatively small numbers of zebras in captivity there should be sufficient genetic diversity to prevent degradation of the zebra gene pool.

Compared with the recently discovered "Galaxy Rasbora" which no sooner than it's introduction and the information is out that due to the highly restricted habitat, the species is already endangered from overcollection and destruction of the habitat by the collectors.
We zebra collector/breeders are in a better position.

Apparently it is as if we had just discovered one of the desert pupfish and began to be collected from their microhabitats for the pleasure of aquarists lacking skill and forsight enough to assure captive breeding as the first priority
.
Larry
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

Larry snub nosed zebras don't appear to be caused by breeding issues. IMO, they are environmental. In the beginning, when I was removing fry from the parents at an early age and keeping them in my fry condos, I had a large number of snub nosed fry. I do still have a certain amount of them show up, but I'm constantly peeking at them with flashlights. I'm sure if I could just leave them alone I would greatly reduce the problem.

Your fry are already from 2 separate females. I still say you could grow them out, swap out one male with someone that has unrelated stock and you'd be fine, but what do I know? ;)

Barbie
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discusbabe
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Post by discusbabe »

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I too can vouch that they will grow braver as they mature, my 4 spread out in their tank now but at first they all stuck together, 2 of the 4 still stay very close to each other though.

Good luck with them and finding more fry, I would love to add to my collection soon!

Regards

Adele
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Post by apistomaster »

Again, thank you for your welcoes.
Hey Barbie,
Hi. I am pleased to hear that the zebras I got from you are already of mixed heritage. I'm sure you can understand why I would like to further broaden the genetic diversity of my zebra colony even if the bullnose is an artifact of environmental conditions. One can never have too much genetic diversity within a breeding program. I fear lack of diversity is best met up front rather than down the road. Even just picking up a few here and there from across the USA would have good implications in the long term.

The zebras seem to be doing well. It is also nice that I seem to be having no problem in propagating cherry shrimp with them. The shrimp are very good at eating any food the zebras might not finish off.

BTW, still want the Dwarfs if transport works out. I have one that is clearly a female but is out growing the other. Not sure if they are the same species and sexes. Both have posterior occelli yet still get along well considering what they are and the difference in size. The obvious female is out growing the other.
I have been awaiting an import shipment before receiving the 18 Coral Red pencilfish; the shipment has come in and I am getting 12 Aspidoras pauciradiatus and four trios of Checkerboard Dwarf Cichlids after they have had a week in quarantine.

The situation of the Galaxy Rasbora is very dire. They have only been found in a small spring fed habitat so small that just the collecton process is causing serious degradation of their microhabitat and the numbers being collected are dropping daily, currently only as few as 30 fish are being collected in a days fishing. That is about a third as could be collected in a day when fishing first began. It's very survival is going to depend on success in cptive breeding programs. Were I not already committed to the coral red pencil project I would try to breed the galaxy rasbora. I sure hope those who have them are able to breed them.
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

I ordered some more of the dwarfs to add to the group. They should be here this week. Figure out how many you would like and I'll talk to Mike about transporting them for a small fee or something. They were a bit more expensive, but I figured it was important to have enough I could fill out both the group for you and for Margie.

I also ordered coral red pencilfish, checkerboards, and I already had the Aspidoras in stock ;). At this point, you might be able to just have stuff shipped UPS ground from here and get it overnight. Maybe we should test drive that with something cheap first though ;).

While I agree that genetic diversity is never a bad thing, I personally feel far too many people get wrapped up in it as the be all, end all solution to any problem that crops up. With zebras, genetics have been blamed for many things along the line that are slowly being proven false. My breeders consist of fish I bought from 4 totally different sources, over a 5 year span. If I have a spawn in the other tank at any point, those fish would be totally unrelated to the current fry.

The limiting factor for breeding these guys seems to be finding a mature enough male. The females definitely LOOK full of eggs earlier than the males are willing to do anything about it, IMO.

Barbie
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