Zebra Plec Info

[adrianhaslett]

Hi to all I have been looking out for Zebra Plecs for a while now and noticed there are some appearing in shops near me but they are very small i.e 1.5cm. All i've seen are being kept in PH of 6.0-7.0 but my PH is about 8.0 so I am concirned that even if I take a risk and buy them at this size the PH difference may kill them.

I have a 6'2'2 with sand bed and several other Plecs ranging from 3-6 inches. If I put these small plecs in with the others will there be a high risk of them getting eaton.

If needby I will buy a RO Unit to get the water arround 7.0 advise would be appreciated as there seems to be varying advice on wether this would be benificial some are saying that my PH would be fine but keep them in there bag and add water from your tank slowly untill it reaches the right PH and then let them go into the tank.

I've seen several shops saying they are F1 Plecs am I right in assuming this means the First Batch of Babies and is this benificial in getting F1's if I want to breed them later or does it not matter.

I have got a couple of empty smaller tanks laying arround the house I could use for these smaller plecs if that would be better.

As I say all help wouls be appriaciated.

[McEve]

1.5 cm is awfully tiny... (0.6 inches) They do not acclimatize well at that age at all... How much did they want for them? I wouldn't risk buying at that size, but others might have different experience and opnion than me.

You are right that F1 is first generation. I would guess that the ones you saw is from the same spawn? If that is the case their offspring would be F2.

It will take about 2 years before they are sexually mature, we've seen examples of rather young F1 spawning, which might indicate that they mature at an earlier age than in the wild.

Good luck, and let's see what the others say too

[dave]

They are very small, I see no problem with acclimatisation I had some very small ones delivered, a four hour journey, they are fine. Maybe I was lucky so you could be taking a chance.

There is always a but though. There is a trait in these fish which keeps repeating itself called snubnose, there are varying degrees of severity.

Very severe cases are noticable at a very early age, less severe cases show themselves as they develop.

I am speaking from experience, of 16 F1's which I purchased 3 have this trait.

You really are taking a chance.

Dave

[adrianhaslett]

I saw them in 2 different shops, Shop 1 wanted £150 each no Deals, Shop 2 wanted £180 each £300 for 2 and was willing to have a deal if I wanted more than 2 they had 4. But My money is nowwhere near getting 4 maybe 2 if I sofen up the wife abit which may be hard when we are talking fish of this size.

My main concirn is putting them from very low PH to a PH of 8 and if they will get eaton.

I got some very bad advice at one fish shop who said the best thing to do was get a tank and organise it so that water comes directly from the RO Unit into the tank and it leaves the tank at the same speed therefor have 100% RO in the tank being filtered by means of a contant input/output. I said I don't know much about that subject but I'm sure that using straight RO would kill any fish something I read about no oxygen in it or something and the fact that it has no hardness so you might get massive PH flucktuations. Others might disagree.

I was thinking more of a 50-50 mix with tap water if i was going to use RO water and then use Haloex for a dechlorinator afterwoods.

They refused to test there water to give me a guidance on the PH of it as they said it fluctuated during the day alot.

[adrianhaslett]

Done some tests:

GH/TH 220
KH 80
PH 8.0
Nitrate Below 50

[NetsuaiAngel]

What are your other plecos in the tank and are there enough hiding places for the zebras? At the size that you're describing, it's most likely you won't see them in your tank unless there's plenty of hiding places for them to grow up in. When you say if they will get "eaton" what other tank mates are in your tank?

Nitrates are below 50. My zebras get pink skin if my nitrates go above 40. I would do 20% water changes until the Nitrates go down, but that's just my opinion.

I've received 1.5" babies before and their ph differed dramatically like what you're looking at.

Zebras do well in a large range of ph. I believe it's how you acclimate them to your ph that is the important part. I did a slow acclimation process that took about two hours or longer (depends how cautious you want to be).

Here's what I've done and it didn't seem to hurt the zebras:

Take the zebras from the lower ph. Put them in a bucket where they still have sufficient water for them to move about, give them something to hide under (moss/cave...something), place an airstone into their bucket to provide oxygen (you can use a paper clip or binder clips to reduce to airflow and pinch the air tubing to the side of the bucket).

Create a dripline from airtubing from your main tank to the bucket. I used a drip line I created from airline tubing and a airline splitter (one that takes in the main airline and will split it to two or three different directions). I prefer the ones that give you control on the airflow, or in this case, the water flow. Cover the bucket with a dark towel to reduce the stress on the zebras.

I let water drip slowly into the bucket until the water in the bucket has doubled (this process should take about 45 minutes). Then reduce the water in the bucket by half (carefully remove half the amount by hand with a cup). And continue with the process two more times until the original zebra water is now 90% to 100% your main tank water.

By this time, your zebra would be acclimated to your tank water and can be directly poured into your tank.

I read about this slow acclimation process before I purchased my first batch of zebra fry and I receive them when they were 1". Those fry I have are now 2" and are happy and healthy.

It's a risk, but be cautious on the acclimation.

- Angela

[adrianhaslett]

Sorry not to be more precise on the Nitrate I would say well under 50 more like 30-40, I do 25% water changes divided into 2 weekly. The water comes out of my tap at arround 20 so it's not good. I was thinking that leeving the cucumber in the tank overnight which the plecs feed of every other night might be causing the slightly higher nitrate as i've only noticed this higher level since feeding them on this?.

I Have 1 Royal Panaque about 3 ", one Scribble Plec about 3", one Snowball Plec about 4", one Striped talking Catfish about 6" and other small comunity fish mainly 4 Dwarf Gourmas and 6 Tiger Barbs and a couple of normal goumas.

The Talking Catfish I would think was the largest thraet as he eats prawns whole most the time.

[NetsuaiAngel]

In my honest opinion I would hold off or get another tank for the zebras.

The plecos you have could be a threat to the zebras. My golden nugget is a threat to my adult zebras (golden's getting her own tank soon). Even my rosy barbs cause fear in my zebras (those will go to a new home soon too).

If memory serves me right, Tiger barbs are schooling fish but they can be fin nippers too and they defend their territory... so do gouramis.

Community fish can show signs of aggression and territorial behaviors that will inhibit zebra behavior if they are not able to have a define territory of their own and with tankmates, some may not come out of their hiding until well after lights are out and other fish are asleep. I had guppies that would pick on my zebra fry, had to get rid of those.

Another factor is temperature. Zebras love temps around 84-86F (23C right?). Lower temps below 80F may promote sluggish behavior that would look like laziness. I'm not sure the community fish you have would withstand a rise in temperature.

Are you planning to breed them? If so, it would be better off in the long run to dedicate a tank specifically for them. But this is just my opinion which could stink

[Piranha]

Another factor is temperature. Zebras love temps around 84-86F (23C right?).

No, it is 28-30C I agree with NetsuaiAngel that You should get another tank for the zebras. Your other fish are rather aggressive - for example all my Panaques were very nasty. Besides it is not recommended to keep zebras with other (especially big) plecos, even if you don't want to breed them (zebras are small and shy fish that should not be combined with other bottom dwellers that will compete for food). Also Tiger Barbs aren't the best tankmates for zebras. One of the more well known traits of the Tiger Barbs is a tendency to "fin nip" on other fish. My experience has been that this behavior can be avoided if you keep them in small groups (10 or more). In this case they spend most of the time chasing each other around and tend to leave the other. If I were You I would get another tank for the zebras.

[adrianhaslett]

I'm beginning to agree trying to get a 150 gallon tank at the right water for these fish could be very costly. If I picked up a 2FT and used media from one of my canister filters that would give me instant cycled water but I would give it a couple of weeks just to check. And I could buy RO water from somewhere as it should not be to expensive to do 25% water changes using a 50-50 mix.

Is this what most people use RO, and what mix are people using with a high PH from the Tap water.

[CDNAqua]

Yes most folk use Ro to stimulate them to breed.

mixing 50/50?

You will have to do some tests to se how much RO you will need for desired chemistry.

peace

Troy

[adrianhaslett]

Just won the bid on ebay for the Zebra Plec about 2-3 Inches, so I need to work fast my option is:

1) Put Zebra Plec in existing Tank and buy him or make some more hiding holes.

2) Grap old or buy new 2ft tank put some sand in it from existing tank as a bed, buy new filter and add media from existing setup, and buy some RO water and get the mix right for Ph of 7.

Need to act quick folks, Price Paid £102

When mixing RO with normall water do I need to wait any length of time before adding to tank ?

[McEve]

You don't need RO water straight away. It's when you want them to breed you need it (sometimes, I've never used it)

[adrianhaslett]

The main thing I was going to use it for is to get a PH of 7 as my tap water is 8.0. The Plec i'm getting i've been told has been kept in water of arround 7.0 PH. I'm hoping he's as described and in good condition as soon as I receive him I will take picture and post on forum hopefully someone will tell me if he's male or female etc.

If I can get away with keeping him in my big tank and buying a RO Unit within the next 2 weeks so that the main tank can have better water quility then I will but oviously I don't want to cause harm to him as my wife will cause harm to me if she ends up wasting £100. She's not happy at the thought as it is.

Last week when I bought a Snowball plec he was kept in RO water of about 6.5 and when I got home I floated the bag with some of my water added for an hour and then put him in, he is very active and feeding well.

I can only hope the Zebra Plec will like it so much.

I'm looking arround the house at the moment to find him a home I have read it needs to be not much wider than the plec and about twice as long I was thinking of sticking 2 film cases together what do you reckon ?

[discusbabe]

If you do use RO water I would advise buying the RO water from an lfs rather than buying an RO unit itself, will save you a considerable amount of money in the long run and keep you in the good books with your missus!