breeding behaviour?

[lzebra]

Hi all,
What I have atm:
zeb population: 1 male ~11cm, 2 adult females ~8cm
current conditions: tank size 4x18x18. Ph 6.8, kH= 1, GH=3, TDS=110-120, temp 29-30C, adding cold water (22-23C) 10% everyday for 5 days now

I'm wondering if my zebs are showing breeding/spawing behaviour? I've not no successful spawns before, so hence my queries
male: always used to hide in caves before I did dry/wet season cycle. Now doing daily water additions of 10% (tank was half full last week) it is 3/4 full now. Now he is switching from cave to cave (i have 5 caves - 3 rectangular slate and 2 round fake log ceramic caves). The last 3-4 days he is sitting outside a particular rectangular cave across its entrance. (new behaviour)

female: they move from cave to cave or sometimes sit on top on an empty cave or the cave the male is hidding in.

any insights folks?

[darry]

Change your male, old bull doesn't really breed well. Go introduce another 2 males between 8.5cm to 9cm as your females are 8cm.

Finally, the number of caves should equal to the number of males. In your current case, u need only one cave so as to force the ladies to visit him in the only cave.

Ignore the tank, leave them alone, go for a short vacation and they will spawn for you when they are ready.

May you have an early Christmas surprise from them, cheers!

[TwoTankAmin]

Change your male, old bull doesn't really breed well. Go introduce another 2 males between 8.5cm to 9cm as your females are 8cm.

Finally, the number of caves should equal to the number of males. In your current case, u need only one cave so as to force the ladies to visit him in the only cave.

I have to say I disagree with both these statements. I am aware of a Hypancistrus breeder who got his last two zebras spawns from a 19 year old male. That said a younger fish would be more eager to spawn than an old hand who has been there and done that for years. But the old gent is also less likely to be a lax dad.

I also believe there should be at least one cave per fish, regardless of sex. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, females cave overnight or will use them for avoiding or escaping conflicts. The same applies to males in terms of avoiding/hiding from confilicts. In general, the more hiding places the fish have, the better they will do.

[lzebra]

Hmmm
What Darry wrote makes sense. There is plenty of other hiding places in driftwood and rocks in the tank for the male and female to hide in my 4th tank. I did remove all but 1 cave yesterday and checked this morning see what how things were doing. The male had his tail protruding outside the cave a bit and the female was sitting right on the extension in front of his cave.

But what u wrote twotanks also makes sense.

Personally I think I need another male to add competition to the colony to spur the big male along.

[darry]

Your own experience is actually your best teacher. The differences in viewpoint between TTA and myself should be taken as evaluation considerations as we both applied from our own experience. I am also learning from TTA as I am writing this and i can assure u that not every colonies behave the same way. Some will be easier , while others will really dry out your patience. Also, do write down notes on the changes and observation that you had made and this will help u to figure out the spawn trigger later when they started spawning.

BTW, I am curious to have a look at your 11cm giant, do post a picture if you can, preferably with a ruler measurement. So far, the biggest L46 I had seen are almost 10cm only. And having a 11cm zebra really set a new record.

If you can take an overall picture of the tank setup, i believe more hobbyist can share their views on how to get your group start breeding. Cheers!