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Hi all,

Had nothing new to report over the last few months so I've been rather quiet.

I've not been happy with my zeb tank set-up and since nothing has been happening in there I guess they weren't happy with it either. I've swapped it around a couple of times over the past few months and decided that the basic set-up I'd started off with, pic of set-up in gallery section, was the one I prefered. It would seem that the zebs prefer this set-up too cos this is what I saw last Sunday night:



I assume since that was a week ago and that the male is now sat back at the cave entrance I should, hopefully, have some wrigglers. I've tried looking in his cave but he makes himself look huge and I can't see a dam thing. I've looked around the tank and he doesn't seem to have ejected any.

I also noticed, yesterday, that another of my cave dwelling males wasn't sat at the front of his cave as usual and this is why:



I'm gobsmacked!!!! Nothing has happened in what seems an age and then BOOM!!!! - two in a week.

Question to Rob, Adam, McEve, Barbie etc (Successfull spawners)

Is it normal for dad to block the cave entrance so wrigglers can't get out? and I can't see in. I'm eager to see some wrigglers but don't want to piss him off.

I assume dad doesn't leave the cave til lights out to feed as he won't have eaten while guarding.

CONGRATS!!!
The same thing happened to me as well! They spawned readily, took a few months off and than started up again!
As far as them blocking the entrance, its pretty normal! They angle themselves up so its almost like they are blocking the light from hitting the eggs. They also start to flutter their anal fins....I tried to stop from flashing the light into the cave......but its pretty hard not to!!
So once again great job!

Congratulations!

Yeah it's the same for me...as of last night I noticed my female had left the males cave (where she has been for about two weeks) and I noticed at least 3 wrigglers inside. I used an infra-red torch so it was a bit easier to see but the male still tries to block me seeing in and any fry seeing out. So as Jerms55555 says, it's perfectly normal.

Congrats again.

Brilliant news! Congrats!

Have the two males spawned in the same tank? How did you stimulate them?

Thanks for the congrats.

I assumed it was normal for him to keep the entrance blocked.

When the fry have consumed the egg and are ready to leave the cave to eat does dad supervise them or just leave them to get on with it?

Have the two males spawned in the same tank? How did you stimulate them?

Yes they've both spawned in the same tank although they are at different sides. I haven't done anything to stimulate them, they've just got on with it themselves!!

Congrats on your two spawns!

Well unfortunately up to the time of typing this I've so far not seen any fry from the first spawn.

Is it possible that the fry from this spawn have hatched, consumed the egg and left the cave? I haven't seen any eggs or dead fry near this cave.

As for the other spawn, I have so far taken out 7 dead fry in various stages of development but all still attached to an egg. They were all kicked out of the cave and, barring one, were already dead. The one that was still alive had a damaged egg so died soon after I moved it in to a fry trap.

My zebra's are still quite young so I'm putting these problems down to inexperienced males but I still have a small amount of doubt in the back of my mind that it might be something I've done/not done.

Any thoughts on this are more than welcome.

Cheers

nesolb wrote:Is it possible that the fry from this spawn have hatched, consumed the egg and left the cave? I haven't seen any eggs or dead fry near this cave.

Generally speaking, if you don't see the fry they're ok. They tend to come out in the open if there's something wrong

I'm sorry to hear of your losses, but like you say, probably due to the inexperience of the father. I'm sure he'll do better next time!

Thanks McEve that's made me feel a little better.

I thought it'd be the inexperience of the males. These are the 4th and 5th spawns I've had and up to now I haven't had any surviving fry, that might still be the case as I still haven't seen any, fingers crossed there are some in the tank somewhere.

My male practise 13 spawn's, now he has finally got it right...

Last spawn was last week sunday, and now he is in cave with wigglers and another female...

I've been swapping the zebra's in to a new tank today and I found a little fry in the tank as i was moving them, whoo!!!!

Here's a pic of the little un



It's about half an inch in size so, How old would you say it is? I'm thinking it's one from my first spawn at the beginning of last month making it around the 3 - 4 week old range.

I hope I haven't stressed it out too much by moving it to it's new tank. It's still in with all my other zebs but I know I've read a few posts in the past saying it's not wise to move them in the early stages. Does anyone think it might be a problem?