Zebra losing its stripes
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Fishfinder
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Zebra losing its stripes
One of my males looks to have been in a scrap and one third of his body near the tail has become quite white with the stripes hardly showing. Does this happen much and what do you guys and girls do - treat with melafix or something or just leave them to recover normally. He doesn't look distressed and is in fact the largest male.
Hi Andrew,
I wouldn't worry about the occassional zebra getting some of its stripes rubbed off through fighting. So long as the damage does not reach the flesh it should be ok. At least four of my males look like someone has been at them with an eraser and it's not even due to fighting. They all occupy their own caves and looks like the constant shuffling around in there can cause the stripes to become faded. With time the stripes will regrow but may be different in appearance. If the zebra appears to be healthy other than the faded stripes and there is no obvious physical damage then treatment will not be necessary. Just keep an eye on things, in the vast majority of cases no intervention is required. I would be careful when using melafix as it can deplete O2 levels, you may want to consider supplementary aeration.
Adam.
I wouldn't worry about the occassional zebra getting some of its stripes rubbed off through fighting. So long as the damage does not reach the flesh it should be ok. At least four of my males look like someone has been at them with an eraser and it's not even due to fighting. They all occupy their own caves and looks like the constant shuffling around in there can cause the stripes to become faded. With time the stripes will regrow but may be different in appearance. If the zebra appears to be healthy other than the faded stripes and there is no obvious physical damage then treatment will not be necessary. Just keep an eye on things, in the vast majority of cases no intervention is required. I would be careful when using melafix as it can deplete O2 levels, you may want to consider supplementary aeration.
Adam.
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Fishfinder
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My impression is that they can loose their stripes fairly easy, through fighting, or even just being worn/stressed out.
This is how my alpha looked after the first spawn, and that ws jsut stress, didn't see him fighting at all, even though he might have done that during the night of course:
Please excuse the quality, it was taking with a rather old camera back then, but your post reminded me of this pictures, so I spent some time digging it up
Like Adam says, leave him alone and he will most likely get his stripes back, although they *might* come back as a different patteren, which happened to one of my females. The male on the picture regrew his stripes identical to what they used to be though.
Just keep an eye on it, - most likely it will be ok in two - three days.
This is how my alpha looked after the first spawn, and that ws jsut stress, didn't see him fighting at all, even though he might have done that during the night of course:
Please excuse the quality, it was taking with a rather old camera back then, but your post reminded me of this pictures, so I spent some time digging it up
Like Adam says, leave him alone and he will most likely get his stripes back, although they *might* come back as a different patteren, which happened to one of my females. The male on the picture regrew his stripes identical to what they used to be though.
Just keep an eye on it, - most likely it will be ok in two - three days.
Hi Andrew,
How many males have you got in this tank?
Did the previous owner have these males together?.
If so, it could be that they are fighting for the best site.It is not always the largest that becomes the "Alpha "male.
I have found that young males growing up together till adulthood, dont seem to fight or scuffle much however it is a different case with utting adult males together for the first time.
Some on here have even lost zebras from sometimes very vicious fighting between males.
Depending on whether he was kept with the other male/s previously , I might try and split the pairs up.
Depending on how badly he is scraped, I might use ESHA2000 to prevent any infections.
Regards,
Des.
How many males have you got in this tank?
Did the previous owner have these males together?.
If so, it could be that they are fighting for the best site.It is not always the largest that becomes the "Alpha "male.
I have found that young males growing up together till adulthood, dont seem to fight or scuffle much however it is a different case with utting adult males together for the first time.
Some on here have even lost zebras from sometimes very vicious fighting between males.
Depending on whether he was kept with the other male/s previously , I might try and split the pairs up.
Depending on how badly he is scraped, I might use ESHA2000 to prevent any infections.
Regards,
Des.
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Fishfinder
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Thanks for all the replies.
McEve that really is a Zebra without any stripes!
Des - I think I have three males and one female.When I collected the fish the male in question was very stressed due to a near disaster which was sadly the fault of the guy I bought them from(that's for another post!) - anyway I decided to quarantine him on his own for a couple of weeks to get him back into condition and I only returned him to the main tank with his other buddies after two weeks. It may be that by splitting them up I have created a bad situation in the tank. I think you are right about the largest fish not necessarily becoming the Alpha male. It is quite funny in that he seems to be in conflict with one other male over one cave and everytime one of them moves out of the cave the other hops in and I think the night time scuffles begin!
I will keep a close eye on him.
Thanks again
Andrew
McEve that really is a Zebra without any stripes!
Des - I think I have three males and one female.When I collected the fish the male in question was very stressed due to a near disaster which was sadly the fault of the guy I bought them from(that's for another post!) - anyway I decided to quarantine him on his own for a couple of weeks to get him back into condition and I only returned him to the main tank with his other buddies after two weeks. It may be that by splitting them up I have created a bad situation in the tank. I think you are right about the largest fish not necessarily becoming the Alpha male. It is quite funny in that he seems to be in conflict with one other male over one cave and everytime one of them moves out of the cave the other hops in and I think the night time scuffles begin!
I will keep a close eye on him.
Thanks again
Andrew
