Hi from Scotland

[siral]

Hi i live in between Glasgow and Edinburgh in Rainy Scotland. 9 years ago i suffered an accident at work and was totally housebound for years and have now have a chronic illness (CRPS) so have good days and bad weeks, but that is art of life,

I started in keeping fish a couple of years ago and now have now got about twenty tanks for Discus the biggest being my house (comunity) tank of a 1000 litre top tank with a 200 litre sump. I honestly do not know how many discus i have but quite a lot as breed them as well with my self and one of my pals.
When i first got my tank a 3ft it had my pals single discus and three brown plecs. With no caves or anything in the tank ( sorry about this totally my fault never knew anything about keeping fish).

I now have my Bristlenose tank Albino's, Brown's, Red's,Blue Eyed Lemons all short fins and ADF in the tank as well as this tank is my wife's tank (she calls the bristlenose's her Megane due to the advert in the UK of the Megane and the shakin my ass in the Advert).

I was picking up some discus of someone last week and he offered me two Zebra pleco never even heard of them before or what they looked like so phoned my friend who looked them up i could not believe the price of them for such a small fish they were just under 2" more like a 1 1/2". So the deal for the discus was i had to take the Zebra's.

I always have tanks running in case of emergency so when i got back i had to dress a tank for these pleco's. With sand caves and such like, i never got any food for them where i got them from so had to get some food for them. Got that but by the time i came back with my son my wife had clocked them, and thought it was a surprise for her, BANDIT.

So i assumed they were just like bristlenose cucumber algae wafers and the like had a look on line and found a list so went to local pet shops and got a selection of diffrent frozen foods for a Zebra so they said. I got Bloodworm Daphnia and Brineshrimp for them but i do not think they have eaten anything so i am getting a bit worried about them eating saw somewhere they will also eat Discus Prima so have tried them with this and some tropical flake but still do not think they are eating.

I have only had them a week and my wife wants them in a bigger tank so she can get more, so over the weekend iv got a 400litre tank that will be getting set up for them in her room i do constant water changes for the discus 50% daily so setting up a tank is instant and iv always got filters on the go. Discus and Zebra water parametres are quite similar so should be a quick set up.

Iv been told that she needs another four for the tank as they should be in a minimum of 6 i kind of thought his but did not want to say to her but hey has to be has to be. So one of my friends of friend has them and is wanting to get rid of a male and some smaller Zebras so will be picking them up over the weekend.

I have a couple of questions to ask if you would not mind helping:
the most important is the food can you advise on what food they should be eating i am in the UK
and with introducing a bigger male in the tank is he likely to attack the smaller zebra i understand they can take a couple of years to get to full size and would not like to see any fish getting hurt due to my inexperience introducing another fish to the tank.

Thank you very much for letting me join your site and for any help that you can give to a newbie of Zebra's
Al

[TwoTankAmin]

Welcome to the site and the wonderful world of zebras.

As to the fighting, this will only happen in relation to spawning. Male plecos are territorial. So in a tank with multiple fish there will be a process of working out a pecking order to see who gets to claim the best cave. Females will also work out a pecking order, but that is to determine who gets to spawn with the top males.

As for feeding, zebras are omnivores with a preference for meaty foods. I have never tried to feed mine fresh veggies. However, I feed the frozen foods you mentioned. It is not a good idea to feed bloods to small zebras, they can choke trying to eat them. I also feed a variety of sinking foods such as a mix of earthworm and veggies sticks.

New fish sometimes may not eat at first, especially if the food is something new to them. However, it is very rare that a healthy fish will starve to death because they refuse to eat a food which is perfectly fine for them. Sometimes moving to a new tank with different parameters can out them off for a bit. Also, they will feed at night. So before you are certain they are not eating, look for poop of the bottom. Healthy regular poop is a good indication fish are eating.

I pretty much keep my zebras in species tanks. However, for a couple of years I parked a couple of wild caught males with a pair of discus.

[Jools]

Discus and Zebra water parametres are quite similar so should be a quick set up.

With the exception of current, zebras like it, discus don't. Feeding tetra discus granules is a good staple.

Jools