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i have six zebras in a four foot tank with three ornamental cannon of the tank deoration variety. the zebras seem happy to share the spaces, sometimes three in one cannon. does this suggest anything about their genders? there are other places for them to hide but they seem happy in little groups. so far no breeding - i've had them three or four years.

Hi paulvh,

Welcome to the forum!

Your post would be best in the tank setup area. The mods may move it there so you can get better answers.

As to your question about three sharing a cannon and if that's an indicator of gender is really hard to answer, to be honest.

The best bet for anyone to guess on their gender is photos, usually sharp pictures of the zebras from the top and from their side and you could post them in the 'Male or Female....You Decide' area of the forums. But our guess is just that, a guess. We've been proven wrong before.

Have fun in the forum. Take advantage of the search engine and glad you could join our 'little' family

Hi thanks for the reply. i guess my question is about whether you can tell genders from behaviour. with my other tanks, both with 3 zebras, each keeps to its own territory whereas swith the 6 together, they seem to he happy to share caves. i thought these fish were always territorial.

the other question is:
if there is no breeding thus far, should i change the fish around and move some out and others in. if so, how to decide which to move.

I would leave them alone. If they are adults I think you'll find the cave sharing will result in breeding.

How big and what shape are the interior of the cannons? Are they open ended? If it's large enough they may think it's a place to hang out. Zebras are somewhat particular about cave size and location for breeding, imo.

Ken

yes. this occurred to me too. there are a couple of entry points to the cannon so i thought this might not be experienced as defensible space for breeding. but i feel it is right to keep the present group together.
i have two other groups of 3 which so far show no sign of interacting with each other - they keep very much to their own space. i suppose i was hoping that a change of personnel (fishonnel) night get some romance going but probably not.
paul

hi

this says nothing about the genders... males like caves, females love slate and woodplaces.... but mature males would never share their caves (only for breeding with a female), perhaps all the zebs are females or they are all juveniles.

a picture and the size would be a better indicator for sexing them...

cannon...? like boom you're dead? I missed that part