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I'd been watching my zebra's eating, as I always do, and I'd noticed that one of my cave dwelling males hadn't been out to eat, he's always out eating without fail. My first thought was to be worried and I wasn't able to see him in the cave cos I couldn't find my torch.

Today I've managed to find the missing torch and after looking in his cave found that he's actually guarding some eggs. I'm gobsmacked and excited at the same time, very strange feeling, cos I was certainly not expecting to have a spawn this quickly. I've not been able to determine whether any are fertilised at the moment and I don't want to stress him by constant torch attacks so I'm just gonna keep an eye on him.

I suspect the spawn took place on Sunday as I was at my sisters wedding all day and the house was empty. I think being undisturbed has certainly helped.

QUICK UPDATE

I've just checked the other caves and I've got a second spawn. What the feck is going on!!!!!!!

Well done! That's fantastic news.

You must have some randy zebs in there at the moment!

Keep us updated on what happens..and get pictures asap!

Damn! I'll have what he's having!

Good job! Just out of curiosity, what do you feed your zebies?

wow, two first spawns. your're verry lucky

Congratulations nesolb!!!!!!
There is nothing quite as exciting as that first spawn - well besides the bridesmaids maybe hehe

Congrats!!!! Can you go to a wedding every few weeks??? Hope that all goes well with the 2 spawns. Keep us posted

That's excellent news nesolb, well done.

Two spawns at the same time and in the same tank is a great achievement. If I remember correctly you have 19 zebras in a five foot, I've always suspected that multiple spawns are more likely to take place in a large tank.

Looks like I'll be clearing out the six foot community tonight and dropping some zebras in there instead.

By the way you might want to consider misplacing that torch again.

Congrats!!

Adam

congrats nesolb! When they decide to start there's no stopping them

And like Adam said, misplace that torch

I AM SO JEALOUS!!!! but well done mate!

Thanks for all the congrats, I'm still in shock today. I've not been doing anything special apart from the regular 15% water changes twice a week cos I have a tendency to over feed them.

NetsuaiAngel - I'm feeding them JMC high protein fish food and catfish sinkers with the occasional freeze dried bloodworm as a treat, the sinkers are more for the corys than zebra's tho.

Adam - Do you think having two spawns may be due to my tank set-up being partitioned? I think this may, in effect, make up two seperate territories.

I've been holding back on checking the caves again as I don't want to upset the males. I'm going to just leave them alone for the moment but just keep checking the movement within the caves to get and idea of what's going on. The torch has been temporarily misplaced again!!!

Do you turn your filters off to feed? as i find the JMC stuff never sits in 1 plave long enough for them to notice it.

I turn the External Eheim off, put the food into a jug of tank water until it's sunk and then stick my arm in the tank and pour the food on to the floor; I then turn the Eheim back on. I don't have a powerhead running so the food just settles once it's been poured in.

I had a feeling you was going to say that lol

One other question, what temp is your water at and did you ever try to trigger a spawn?

Makes sense really I guess!!

The tank temp is 28C. I've not tried any inducing techniques cos I thought they were too young to spawn. I was expecting them to start showing an interest in about 6 - 12 months from getting them, not within 3 months!!! As we all know it could take years for them to actually spawn which is why I'm so suprised.