Zebra Plec Info

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:19 pm

Is that not the other way arround, RO Water from my lfs cost £2.50 per 5 Gallons, a 4 Stage RO UNit 50 GPD cost £79.00. If I change 40 gallons a week and do a 50-50 mix that would be 20 gallons a week needed. LFS Cost £10.00 a week £40.00 a Month. Within 2 Mnths I would have paid for my RO Unit and be home and dry.

dave · Post by **dave** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:55 pm

Don't bother with RO, when I lived in Ealing they were fine without it, I now live in Liverpool they are fine without it.

If you get a few and fail to breed them, then try water changes with RO.

I understand the expense of these fish makes people want to be super careful and paranoid.

Good water quality, a temperature of 86F/30C it will be fine.

Dave

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:53 pm

O.K Got my L046 here are some pictures. I'm not 100% but it looks like he may have snubnose ?. He is a wild L046 that the previous owner has had for 3 years.

Sorry about the photo's no good at taking pictures through glass, perhaps someone can give some hints.[/img]

dave · Post by **dave** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:05 pm

Looks great to me.

It is not a snubnose, and I would guess a female,

Dave

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:26 pm

It's gone in the big tank for know with a PH of 8 it was 6.8 from the seller.

If it refuses to eat after a couple of days or I see the colour deteriate I'll take measures i.e get some ro and move it to a smaller tank.

If qall goes well i'll be after a male, I even bought him a little house perfect for his size got good room inside but the hole at front is just bigger than his width and only a little bit higher. Mind you my luck says one of the other fish will hog it and he won't even notice it.

madmoroccan · Post by **madmoroccan** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:47 pm

Hi,

I just noticed this thread... Congratulations on your new purchase, definately not a snub nose. My feelings are that he/she will be fine, although you might be better advised to keep it on it's own. These fish don't compete well for food at all. Partly due to their shy nature.

Your best bet is to get it it's own tank. A 2ft tank will be ok if you only intend to keep 2 - 3. As others here have said, water ph, softness isn't of utmost importance it's the quality that counts (well filtered).

Good luck.

discusbabe · Post by **discusbabe** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:03 pm

adrianhaslett wrote:Is that not the other way arround, RO Water from my lfs cost £2.50 per 5 Gallons, a 4 Stage RO UNit 50 GPD cost £79.00. If I change 40 gallons a week and do a 50-50 mix that would be 20 gallons a week needed. LFS Cost £10.00 a week £40.00 a Month. Within 2 Mnths I would have paid for my RO Unit and be home and dry.

I was referring to the running costs of an RO unit rather than the costs of the water itself, RO units provide plenty of waste water and not very much RO water! All very well unless you are on a water meter! I will not touch one with a barge pole!

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:37 pm

Any recommendations for food, put bloodworm in there he seemed interested but as you say get's intimidated by the other fish, cucumber get's left in the tank overnight every other day as the other plecs love it expecially the Panaque. Also got them sticky meat tablet things and stuck it to the glass but did not seem interestred. My Scibble plec has stole his home before he got a chance to move in will try and get him another home tomorrow at the moment stays hidden behing the filter suction pipe.

I've been reading about on the internet and it seems alot of people have kept these and never seen them eat as they don't bother coming out at the usual meal time but say they must be eating because they have had them for long periods.

I guess also his settling in, hopefully will get better in the next couple of days.

discusbabe · Post by **discusbabe** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:23 pm

Fingers crossed for you Adrian, he/she looks fab but then I'm yet to see a zeb that I don't think looks fab!

NetsuaiAngel · Post by **NetsuaiAngel** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:37 pm

adrianhaslett wrote:Any recommendations for food, put bloodworm in there he seemed interested but as you say get's intimidated by the other fish, cucumber get's left in the tank overnight every other day as the other plecs love it expecially the Panaque. Also got them sticky meat tablet things and stuck it to the glass but did not seem interestred. My Scibble plec has stole his home before he got a chance to move in will try and get him another home tomorrow at the moment stays hidden behing the filter suction pipe.

I've been reading about on the internet and it seems alot of people have kept these and never seen them eat as they don't bother coming out at the usual meal time but say they must be eating because they have had them for long periods.

I guess also his settling in, hopefully will get better in the next couple of days.

Feed your other fish at their normal time so they get full and do a smaller feeding right after the lights go out. Zebras are usually nocturnal from my experience.

If you're feeding frozen foods, you could try target feeding in the zebras spot with a turkey baster and squirt the food in the zebras direction. That's how I get my fry trained to eat when the pumps are turned off.

Just my two cents

- Angela

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:34 pm

She started feeding yesterday on bloodworm always hides during the day but I think this is normal. THe PH is still high but she seems happy am picking up a RO unit during the week and was thinking of doing my usual weekly waterchanges for 2 weeks or so using straight RO untill ph is settling at 7.0 and then mixing future changes to keep it to that value only concurn is that as she seems happy in the harder water shall i bother getting the PH down. And if I add RO for a while won't the PH fluctuate antill it finds a level and cause more stress.

NetsuaiAngel · Post by **NetsuaiAngel** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 6:54 pm

adrianhaslett wrote:She started feeding yesterday on bloodworm always hides during the day but I think this is normal. THe PH is still high but she seems happy am picking up a RO unit during the week and was thinking of doing my usual weekly waterchanges for 2 weeks or so using straight RO untill ph is settling at 7.0 and then mixing future changes to keep it to that value only concurn is that as she seems happy in the harder water shall i bother getting the PH down. And if I add RO for a while won't the PH fluctuate antill it finds a level and cause more stress.

If you're going to adjust the ph be sure to do it gradually.

Honestly, I believe you'll find that zebras are happy in a ph range of 8.0 to 6.0.

My tap is at 8.0 and I use a little (like a pinch) of discus buffer when I do water changes and I mix the water a day before to let the buffer settle before adding new water to the tank. Also if you have driftwood in your tank, it will also act as a buffer and will create a more natural water chemistry that the zebra is comfortable with.

You could also do a search for "peat moss" on this forum and read about how peat moss can naturally buffer your ph.

And if you do a search for "RO" you'll find that there's plenty of info about using RO water for water changes.

I would just keep an eye on your nitrates and continue keeping your water quality up.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:31 am

NetsuaiAngel wrote: Honestly, I believe you'll find that zebras are happy in a ph range of 8.0 to 6.0.

I agree. Besides, if at all possible it's always better to use the water you have in your tap without having to add too many chemicals. The water parameters will be much easier to keep stable, and you won't get any nasty surprises if you for some reason don't focus on the tank for a week or two

I add a bit of hardener as my tapwater has 0 GH and 0 KH, especially the babies don't like that much. Part from that, no fuzzing about with the water.

adrianhaslett · Post by **adrianhaslett** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:31 pm

Major Update Today, Sold on over 15 Fish to enable the tank to become very Zebra Freindly.

In my 6'2'2 now is only the Following Fish:

King Tiger Pleco (L066)
Royal Pleco (L190)
Snowball Pleco (L102)
Flash Pleco (L204) New Today
Zebra Pleco (L046)
Satanoperca Jurupari (Eartheater) * 2 Very Small
Dwarf Gourma * 2
Striped Talking Catfish
Kissing Gourma
Brislenose Plec

These fish are all seem Zebra Freindly and allready the L046 has come out from his hiding place behing the filter pipe and went into his home I bought him a week ago. Has not eat today but has been for the past couple of days. Hopes all o.k.

Only problem know is the tank looks very bare.

The following are my future plans:

a) To Lower the PH slowly top about 7.0 over the next couple of weeks.

b) To buy some Discus about 6 at least in order to fill the middle area of the aquarium and hopefully they will like the RO Water.

discusbabe · Post by **discusbabe** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:43 pm

You need to be careful with discus and plecs, some of them may be very tempted with the mucus on the side of the discus! I would also be concerned about the gouramis with the discus, not a combination I would try by any means! How are your tank mates going to like the discus temperatures?

Sounds like you are planning for the zebs but you need to consider the discus as well here don't forget, sorry they're my next favourite fish!