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I woke up this morning and found both my babies are dead ;(((. I checked the water i checked ammonia i checked everything??? My males and females look fine??? A couple of days ago i saw my male picking on the babies?? I dont understand? Could have the males killed them?? ;( So sad

I have never seen free swimming babies killed by adults. Doesn't mean it isn't possible. However, I would look elsewhere for the cause. I can't remember if you posted, but is your tank bare bottom?

I have sand, i did put plants in there after the hurricane. Do u think its the plants that i put in?

The plants i put in a couple of weeks ago??

The reason I asked about the bare bottom (which is how I do it) can cause issues for some, especially if their is a disease present. Sometimes the microscopic films that forms on the glass can harbor "germs". While bigger zebras nay be resistant, fry are often not.

I do not believe your males are killing fry. I doubt the females are either. In a colony setting females may eat eggs or even wigglers in order to free up the alpha male to spawn with them. But once the fry are out of the cave there is no benefit to this. I have raised countless spawns in my breeder tank and never seen babies being killed or eaten. But I also place a premium on having maximum cover which includes many hiding places where fry can fit but bigger fish can not.

It is also pretty hard to spot signs of disease on a tiny fry as opposed to a bigger fish. I am aware of one case where a person lost dozens of fry and it took an microscopic examination to determine the disease that was doing it. The examination was performed at a University.

Finally, there are two other things you might look into. First is diet, what were you feeding the tank? The second is simply that the fish were genetically weak and destined to die. It would be impossible to know this.

Since the hard part is getting them started in spawning, the odds are good you should get another spawn and how that goes may give you a better idea of what is up.

If anybody else has any thoughts, please chime in.

Thank you Chris. I lost one a month ago or 2. The juvi was found shredded in pieces in the in the back of the cave.. Thats the only reason im suggesting my male killed them but i didnt see any marks on the fishes. Im going after work to bring a sample of water to my local fish store. They survived Sandy only to die a couple of weeks later..

Came home and found my female dead. ;(((( im so stressed out!! I went to the local fish store and they said its the sand in my fish tank. Its a time bomb ;( i clean the sand??? He told me he had stingrays and they all died. It was bc of the sand, he said sand causes gas pockets. Smh 3 zebras in 1 day. I only have 3 left ;(

Unless you have deep sand, this should not be an issue. If your depth is 2 inches or less the odds are it isn't anaerobic pockets.

I am beginning to think you have a "rogue" fish in the tank. Its one thing to lose fry but another to lose a larger fish. If it was clearly beaten to death, then it must be one of the other fish. I think you should probably separate the suspected bad one from the rest.