Hi Guys Kev from the UK here ;)

[Kevzebrapleco]

Hi guys, this is something a bit different for me and I’m hoping all my experience of keeping a large successful marine aquarium will help me to be successful in keeping and rearing my healthy 4 juvenile zebra plecos I have at the moment soon to be followed up by another 3 that are due to come to me in the next week and I am also looking for another 3 to bring my total up to 10 then that’s my lot. I did have the 4 (only 1”) in a 57L fluval flex but today I have just set up my new fluval Roma 90L with an Eheim Professional 4+ 250T and Eheim 200 air pump. The flow rate is 900 litres an hour and the temp is set at 28 degrees. At the moment they are really happy even in the small fluval flex but it seems quite big for them considering their size. I don’t see them in the day but as soon as I put in the ebo aquaristik softpro mussel they are all over it. They look happy and healthy and I’m sure they’re gonna love their new tank and their new clay caves. Any help or pointers would be truly grateful as the care of these amazing fish is my first priority and concern but I think we are off to a good start, I hope many thanks.

[TwoTankAmin]

Welcome to the site and to the wonderful world of zebra. Bear in mind that there are different ways to work with zebras. In the end we all have to learn what works best in our tank(s). Anything below which says how I do it should be seen as my way but not the only way nor even the best way.

A few general observations which may be helpful. When they are first free swimming, zebra fry will all hang out together. They instinctively want to hide in places where they fit but where larger fish wont. Over time as they grow they will break into smaller groups and eventually the males will want their own territory and cave. When small they do not need caves, bu,t as they get older, they will. They like a tight fit.

They key to a happy community of zebras is lots of hiding places and ways for the loser in a fight to get out of sight of the winner.

Baby zebras need more vegetable matter that they will when they get older. Small zebras cannot eat foods like blood worms or similar sized adult foods and they can choke on them if they have no other option. Be sure to feed things smaller fish can readily fin and eat. I tend to put the fry food in befoer the adult food.

Repashy Gel food is great for all size zebras- Bottom Scratcher, Spawn & Grow and Soilent Green are all great and you can mix them together when batching them. Hikari frozen is another favorite of mine.

Good oxygenation is more important the high flow/current.

I initially kept 13 adult zebras in a 30 gal breeder tank. I still have this today but some of the zebras werereplaced since it was set up in Apr. 2006. Your 50 gal. should be fine for 10 and lots of fry.

One warning- assuming you have both sexes and that down the road they do spawn, catching the offspring (or the original adults for that matter) usually requires one break down the tank and remove any place they can hide. I sometimes have to detach the heaters from the glass to nab them. They love to hide, Perhaps the most important factoid I oicked up from this site and which I have been cognizant of whenever setting up a Xingu river pleco tank was this from the Habitat area of the Species Info:

The floor of the Xingu is primarily made up of rounded rocks, crevices and a sandy substrate, allowing Hypancistrus zebra to travel throughout its territory under cover from predators.

This is an over simplification, But the environment is so unique that zebras cannot survive in other types of habitat in the wild. It was tried to transplant them to another river and a year later no zebras could be found where they had moved them.