What type of wood and how much?

[Jaz]

What type of wood is best for zebs?

Mangrove
Mopani
Red moor wood

or does it really matter?

And how much wood do they really need?

[jerry58]

Hi Jaz

I think zebs need wood in the tank like most people have.
There are 3 factors I look for in wood and that it easy to keep clean,places for zebs to hide and good to the eye for me it is a easy choice of the 3 woods and I would choose No1 Mangrove wood (mine comes from peat bogs I think in this country)so is called bogwood.
The Mopani wood does not look natural to me and I dislike it.
The twiggy Red moor wood no hiding properties and hard to keep clean by that I mean scrubbing it.
Mangrove wood will make your water brown for a time but will go with water changes .
I think all three woods will sort of grow a (white) film slime over them when new to the tank but more so the Red moor wood IMO,tends to have more sap in it.
Its down to what you like best and other caves and places for zebs to hide as to how much wood
I only have 2 bits of wood in my adult tank and 4 fish 4 caves and few bits of rock and this works well for my zebs .

Hope this helps .

Jerry

[Jaz]

Thanks Jerry

Our 5 zebs are now in the main tank with alot of diffent fishes and at the moment they are all hiding inside a big mangrove. I have never had problems with mangrove, it only made the water brown for few weeks (never got that white stuff). But now I found some pieces of moor wood and its so much better looking than mangrove.

In few weeks zebs will get their own tank and I planned to make alot of caves from slate and then just add few pieces of wood for the looks. But then I read somewhere that they need some wood to eat/scrub/something?
So can our zebs do their thing with that nice looking moor wood?

I'm probably adding some moss on the top of moorwood so they can hide below it and with slatecaves hiding should not be a problem.

-Joonas-

[jerry58]

Hi welcome to the site sorry missed it LOL.
Sounds good to me show us a pic when done.
The moore wood has white stuff on it especially at the cuts on the branches for a while with the sap leaking out,the mangrove wood just rots like saw dust in appearance.
Just one thing I personally would not add any (wild) moss to the tank of zebs as this might introduce parasites or illness to the tank maybe someone will read this and tell how to treat (if you can)the moss before you put it in to be on the safe side.
I always microwave all my bogwood (if it fits in)prior to putting in the tank for 30 seconds or so to kill anything living in it snails and eggs just to be on the safe side.
If does not fit in microwave I pour boiling water on it and soak for a while to do the same thing not worth taking the risk.

Jerry

[Jaz]

Wasnt thinking about wild moss.

Had something like this in mind: (only what comes to the moor wood + moss)



Java moss - Taxiphyllum barbieri was the one I was thinking. Already have some in our main tank.

[jerry58]

Hi that aquatic moss should be ok just make sure food does not get caught in and go moldy as the zebs will not look and forage for it.

Jerry

[TwoTankAmin]

Bear in mind that in the wild zebras live deep and dark. There are no plants or algae to speak of.

I started out with plants in my breeder tank , but over time the higher temps tended not to agree with them. Today my only 100% unplanted tank is the zebra breeder tank. Good thing since i recently decided to stop lighting this tank except for when I do weekly maint.

If you really insist on having plants, then take a look at a list of plants suggested for discus tanks.

[Jaz]

Thanks Amin

I took alot of tips from this guy:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... cle_id=387

and he ain't scared of algae in tank and he seems to make pretty good looking tanks and still breed zebs really good in them.

And our zebs are F1, they don't know nothing about Xingu-river.