Keeping a colony

dave · Post by **dave** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:49 pm

Hi Guys and Girls

Well these little fellas never cease to surprise.

I have 11 in a 4' x 18" x 18" tank 5 caves and a lot of mopani wood. Also got 9 babies swimming around with the big ones.

Well everything I have read about L46's tells me that only 1 alpha male will breed in a tank.

I now have two brooding males less than a foot apart. The caves they chose to breed in had a mopani wood overhang.

Hope this may be of use to someone, especially those who don't want large numbers of tanks.

Take care an good luck in your breeding attempts.

Dave

Plastic Mac · Post by **Plastic Mac** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:42 pm

I've read a couple of reports, from this site i think, about people who have managed mutliple spawns in the same tank at the same time...so it obviously is possible. I've no idea what parameters must be filled before something like this is possible though, obviously two adult pairs to start with..but whether it's also the extra space your providing in your big tank I've no idea. Would be interesting to find out why some people have multiple spawns and others don't though.

Any chance you can post a picture of your tank?

but good to hear your having so much success, keep it up!....and if your fish can use skype could you get them to have a word with mine, lazy sods...

Plastic Mac

Raul-7 · Post by **Raul-7** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:51 pm

It's probably because your tank is big enough that the two males don't actually cross paths with each other; thus they both have their own territories with their own females. Do you have a lot of barriers (rocks, bogwood, etc.)? Good luck with the spawn!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:42 pm

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum.

Congrats on the spawn(s) and especially on the two males doing it in the same tank.

I honestly do not think that managing to get two males spawning in the same tank is something that can not be easily duplicated. There are very few members here that have managed it to date. I'm theorising here but I would imagine that in order for this to happen the two males involved would have to be equally dominant and so any females in the tank would be happy to spawn with either one. Both of my breeding colonies contain other males that you would think are more than capable to sire offspring but the females don't think so. The two tanks are 380 litres so space shouldn't be an issue, the best I can manage is back to back spawns. I would be inclined to say that it is more likely to happen in a larger sized tank but this is not the case as tanks as small as 180 litres can support multiple spawning males.

Perhaps if more details of how zebras spawn in the wild were available then we could better understand the mechanisms involved.

Dave this is a bit of a long shot but did you happen to purchase your zebras from Wild Woods?

Regards.

Adam

dave · Post by **dave** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:46 pm

Hi Adam & Plastic Mac

I tried to post a pic but a computer illiterate, but if you email Dhow835836@aol.com I'll send pics in reply.

In answer to your question Adam, 8 from Wildwoods, 2 Trimar and one a local shop in Liverpool.

Dave

zebra046 · Post by **zebra046** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:28 am

I have manage to breed two males in a 20 gal. long tank and three males in a 60 gallon tank, a pair in a 60 gallon planted tank, trios in 10 gallon tanks and a pair in a 3 gallon eclipse all are pretty much bare tanks. except the planted display tank.