Anyone ever feed their zebras new life spectrum H2O stable wafers? I still can't get them to eat and their bellies are starting to shrink!
They are still very active though, I got paranoid and moved them to a tank with no substrate so I could see if they were pooping. I Should have just left them alone.
I also tried to feed them home made food consisting of cooked shrimp zucchini and tetra color enhancing flake food ground up into a slurry and mixed with clear gelatin.
All my parameters are good nitrates are below 5ppm, no nitrite, no amonia, ph is 7.6, and gh\kh are within acceptable levels. Anyone have any Ideas? There is plenty of cover for them to hide and plenty of caves for them to pick one out. Any Ideas on what I should try to feed them?
New life spectrum
I would not be too comfortable with a ph of 7.6 I much prefer 7.2 or less but that wasn't the question.
Put a sponge over your canister intake and feed them frozen brine shrimp. Not too much mind you cause zebs don't eat a lot. The sponge will stop the canister from eating the shrimp before the zebs do and it will also trap some of the shrimp so the zebs will know exactly where to go and find it. Place cover all the way to the sponge as they will not cross open ground.
The other love mine have are Omega One shrimp pellets. It is that particular brand which mine love but they only get one pellet per two adult zebs per night. Yeah, I am lousy but the zebs are fat.
I got those H20 wafers and actually have yet to have any of my plecs go raving for it. Maybe its an acquired taste?
If your zebs are new, kill the lights. It stresses new plecs no end especially shy zebs. I got myself a fluro moonlight after a few weeks and it doesn't seem to bother them at all.
Put a sponge over your canister intake and feed them frozen brine shrimp. Not too much mind you cause zebs don't eat a lot. The sponge will stop the canister from eating the shrimp before the zebs do and it will also trap some of the shrimp so the zebs will know exactly where to go and find it. Place cover all the way to the sponge as they will not cross open ground.
The other love mine have are Omega One shrimp pellets. It is that particular brand which mine love but they only get one pellet per two adult zebs per night. Yeah, I am lousy but the zebs are fat.
I got those H20 wafers and actually have yet to have any of my plecs go raving for it. Maybe its an acquired taste?
If your zebs are new, kill the lights. It stresses new plecs no end especially shy zebs. I got myself a fluro moonlight after a few weeks and it doesn't seem to bother them at all.
I don't have any fish that like those wafers, to be honest. My fish far prefer NLS pellets. I use a bucket of their "grow" high protein diet in about 6 months at my house. I would recommend trying frozen daphnia, cyclopeeze, or even hikari carnivore pellets. You don't mention how warm you're keeping them. When I have new zebras, I warm them up to stimulate their appetite. I shoot for 86 degrees, but have gone as high as 90 when I was specifically wanting to push them to eat.
As to the pH, 7.6 is just fine. I've kept them happily MUCH higher. IMO, pH is the least of their worries. I know if you get the pH much below 6 with zebras you can kill them from the stress, so erring to the side of higher is just fine, as long as you understand that ammonia is exponentially more toxic the higher the pH. Adequate filtration and no overfeeding will be of utmost importance.
Barbie
As to the pH, 7.6 is just fine. I've kept them happily MUCH higher. IMO, pH is the least of their worries. I know if you get the pH much below 6 with zebras you can kill them from the stress, so erring to the side of higher is just fine, as long as you understand that ammonia is exponentially more toxic the higher the pH. Adequate filtration and no overfeeding will be of utmost importance.
Barbie
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