Howdy all; I am an avid fish keeper and have been at it for 45 yrs or so. Had to retire due to 3 brain surgerys to remove a very large tumor. Guess I am lucky enough to still be here and still have most of my marbles to play with. I have breed dozens of species over the yrs and am now very into Plecos in a big way. I have close to 700 gallons in my livingroom with 5 real nice groups of rare Plecos. I have a group of 7 L046 Hyp - Zebras in a 135gal. long tank with 4 Chocolate zebras as well.
My other groups are > 5 King tigers, 4 wood eatting Panaques and hundreds of Bristle nose. They are all wild fish. I am frustrated with my zebras as I have had them for 1 yr. now and its a no show on young as of yet. Does anyone know how old they need to be to be mature. They are all between 3"-4" and are quite spoiled. Weekly 50% water changes, excellant flake food variety includeing live brine shrimp weekly and chopped earhtworms even. Water out of my tap is 6.5 Ph and zero carbinates. Pretty much like rain water. Any help on age would be appreciated . Thanks
Welcome to the site and lets hope you and your fish are around for a long time to come as well.
Zebras are seasonal spawners. That means they need to go from one set of water parameters to a very different set to trigger spawning. While they may eventually spawn without this stimulus, it could take a long time and might not happen at all. Basically your water is the rainy season side of things and you need to make it like the dry season for a while and then time a return to what you now have to the arrival of a storm for the kick of the barometric pressure change which the fish can feel/sense.
I would also suggest you should have them in a much smaller tank. I would have 7 spawning size in a 20 long or a 29. The max. size I would do would be a 30 breeder.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
Fern wrote:And you need lots and lots of patience!
Thanks all for the good replies. I read both the great breeding articals and I think the were real helpfull. Sounds like I may be waiting awhile for those awesome little stripped babies.
I have submitted an articale on the L046 and it should be up on the site soon. In the articale it address my sucess with breeding and what and how I went about it. Hope you will enjoy it and it is helpful to you.
Regards Doug White
Doug White wrote:I have submitted an articale on the L046 and it should be up on the site soon. In the articale it address my sucess with breeding and what and how I went about it. Hope you will enjoy it and it is helpful to you.
Regards Doug White
Thanks and Hello Doug. Ièm a Doug too and live on Vancouver island. I be waiting to read you essay. Hope you have a few pics to. Ièd love to see your set-up. I have 7 Zs that are 3-4 inches long and NO indications of sex that I can see yet. I am going to move them into their new 65 g river tank by summer i hope. Doug
Doug White wrote:I have submitted an articale on the L046 and it should be up on the site soon. In the articale it address my sucess with breeding and what and how I went about it. Hope you will enjoy it and it is helpful to you.
Regards Doug White
Any update when this article will be available?
[b]Stuart[/b]
Looking for L260's - adult or fry, PM with any details
Your zebras need to be a min of 3 1/2 years of age.
Diet is very important along with water temp and peramators.
Check out my articale on this site as I go into more detail.
Regards Doug White
. Thanks
