Other fish you can keep with them??

nightowl1350 · Post by **nightowl1350** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:44 am

Real newbie....don't even have zebras, but here goes

Can you have other fish in with your Zebras while they are growing up or must they be kept in a single species tank? For breeding It looks like you all have them in tanks with only zebras.

NetsuaiAngel · Post by **NetsuaiAngel** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:01 am

Welcome to the forums nightowl1350!

You can keep other fish with your zebras if you'd like, but you must becareful with choosing their tankmates. Semi-aggressive and aggressive species are very dominating to zebras, meaning they will bully them and maybe nip at their fins if the zebras threaten their territory.

From what I've been reading for our other zebras owners out there, it seems that you are also limited to how many zebras per tank because the males are territorial to each other and it also looks like there's only one dominant male zebra per tank.

Usually community fish will do well with zebras. If you're planning on having a zebra this forum is a great place to ask everyone what they think if you added a certain species of fish.

Hope that helps!

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:43 am

I have some Harlequin Rasboras in with my Zebras. They don't bother them at all.

INXS · Post by **INXS** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:02 pm

I have been reluctant to keep any other fish with zebras for a couple of reasons :

even a small fish like a tetra or a guppy might go after a newborn zebra fry and we wouldn't want that.

they tend to be a bit shy so they would not compete well for food and depending on the fish , terratory.

Having said that I must admit that I have kept zebras with a few other hypancistrus species and even peckoltias. For general housekeeping in a zebra tanks you might even keep otos or ancistrus as they are strictly vegetarian.

If you are keeping a community tank you can go ahead and pick from an extensive list just try to avoid fish that could eat them , are aggressive , fish that have a tendency to hog food and too many other bottom dwellers that would outcompete the zebras for terratory.

nightowl1350 · Post by **nightowl1350** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:48 pm

Thanks

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 8:47 am

Be careful with other hypancistrus species. I have read on this forum of them killing zebras in territorial disputes.

INXS · Post by **INXS** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 12:36 pm

Mindy,
I have kept mine with L-201, L-260 and L-174 in the past.

I think the problem from terratorial disputes may be more related to the size or the tank, amount of caves and amount of fish then other hypancistrus since zebras will sometimes kill eachother in terratorial disputes (I lost one).

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 1:12 pm

And more so, there's a danger of cross breeding. And we don't want to see too much of that... IMO

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:13 am

I like Cardinal Tetras and some dwarf Apistos "cacatoides, Ramirizie"but some times the Apistos will take over the Zebra Cave thats the reason for having caves for each fish including the Cichlids

nesolb · Post by **nesolb** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:10 am

I keep my zebbies with corys. The zebra's were a little nervous around them in the beginning but they're not bothered in the slightest now.

I was actually thinking about adding a large shoal of zebra danios but I'm still contemplating whether or not to split my zebra's in to two groups.