ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

Hi folks

As we all know the UK is a small country.

And the transport systen isn't too bad either.

And the debate about F1's, F2's has been done to death, inbreeding etc.

At the end of the day the ideal situation is to breed unrelated F1's.

In 12 months time all the L46's I have bred or bought over the last 6 months will be 18 months old, 3 unrelated lines.

Is there anybody out there who would consider an exchange?

Dave

If I managed to produce any brood stock, this is something I would definately be interested in with breeder's in my local area (North West/West Yorkshire).

If we are genuinely interested in preserving the species in it's current form, this is some thing we are going to have to participate in to prevent it going down the same route as more comercial species, for instance Rams from the Far East!

can you explain your self further? i would be interested in swapping to preserve good blood stock. it makes sense i think....

regards.

andy

Well the deal I have with two people local to me who have wild colonies is they breed some fish, I breed some fish and we swap. We all have multiple tank set ups so we can keep fish from different lineages isolated until sexable or recognisable.

Now hopefully to extend this a little further if there is any interest.

I would personally deliver to a major mainline rail station, ( no more than 4 hours travelling from Liverpool ) I would pay the train fare, and this really isn't that generous as the cost of purchasing 2 or 3 fish would exceed any train fare that I am likely to pay.

I would also only envisage only doing this once maybe twice a year as my main purpose is to breed these fish not collect them.

Dave

This is what I planned on doing once my group had established a regular spawning pattern and I was getting fry from them. What we need is diversity in our spawning groups in order to not weaken the blood line of the fish.

At the moment I'm not in a position to contribute but once I am you can be sure I'm interested. I'm only an hour and a half away too!!!

Hi Dave,

I currently have around 30 fry all coming up to 12 months old towards the end of the year.

I will be happy to swap with you to increase my gene pool mix but it will have to be towards the end of the year.

I also need to sort out another tank as currently have one for breeding group, one for all the fry and a community tank that is around ten years away from becoming a zebra community tank.

My job entails me to travel all over the country so picking up will not be an issue.

I live in Bristol and would also be happy to keep the bloodlines swapping. With this sort of action, however, there would have to be some kind of accurate record keeping though, wouldn't there?

Also, without sounding funny, I would like to see the fish I'm swapping with and be able to decline if I felt I needed to. If, for instance, I had very healthy, strong fish, I wouldn't be too keen to swap for less robust fish, if you see what I mean. We would all have to be very keen on our tank upkeep, etc, to make sure that the fish we are breeding and swapping are of the highest quality. I know that sounds obvious, but it was something that popped into my head as I was reading the thread.

Mindy raises an excellent point or points.

In addition people seem to want females instead of males and while it is not possible to sex with certainty at 12 to 18 months, I reckon it is possible to make an educated guess. It could also be seen as a method of increasing the number of females an individual has.

In answer to these I propose the following solutions:

1. I will post pics of the actual fish, unfortunately I am a computer illiterate, I have managed to post a pic in the gallery not on the forum though, but no doubt this will suffice.

2. When delivered both parties can decline if they are not happy with the quality of the fish offered in the exchange. The 4 hour travelling takes this into account. I had 2 delivered from Trimar in Cornwall overnight, on arrival they must have been packed for at least 15 hours.

3. Record keeping will be meticulous, I currently have 5 tanks devoted to L46's, which will increase to 12 by Christmas. The method to keep records is too complex to list here.

4. I am letting 3 fish go to a member of this site who is fairly local, these are to go with his lonely old male, this deal will take place in the next 1 to 3 months which is prior to any exchange. I will ask him if he minds if people who are prepared to exchange contact him so that he can give his opinion.

5. And finally if I let anybody down it will be posted on here.

If anybody else has any doubts please post and I'll try to answer.

Dave