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Hello everybody,

i arrived home from 2 days at my girl friend and watched into one of the caves. there one zebra (i think it was a male) was sitting inside and lying with the head to the entrance of the cave. after a while he left the cave and i watched into it. then i saw about 10 eggs in it (more i could not see). Now a very small zebra is inside this cave, i guess it is another young male, cant believe that it is the female. the big male that was in the cave before is now in another cave. i am very happy

anyone an idea what i can do next ?

wow... congrats on being a daddy... what was your magic to make them spawn?

hi

now i took another look into the cave... all the eggs are gone and i cant find them anymore.. what could have happened ? i guess the male is my wildcought. perhaps he is too stupid because they are his first eggs ?

magic ? hm... i changed 60% of water this week, and the temperature changed from 31 to 23 grad celsius. i think they loved it...

nice! at least he learn something from his first time.

hi

i found the eggs it have been 12 i`m soo disappointed..

Well first spawns are usually infertile anyway, at least they have started spawning i am sure you will have fry soon enough

Yes, don't worry. I know how dissappointing it us to see them wasting away - but he will learn. My male did the same thing, now he's on his second succesful spawn.

i hope so, too.

here is my current setup for my 200L tank if someone is interested in, the plecos love it!!!

Miezekatze wrote:i hope so, too.

here is my current setup for my 200L tank if someone is interested in, the plecos love it!!!

wow.. can you say, " IS THAT ENOUGH CAVES!!!" I love your setup. How many zebras in there?

hi

i think there are enough caves in it i have 11 zebra plecos, the size is from 5,5 to 9,5 cm (2 to 4 years old) and i guess 6 females and 5 males now. (1 alpha 9,5cm wildcought, the rest f1 or f2)

the tank is a rio180 from juwel. its filtered with one internal filter (Juwel - 600l/h) and one external filter (Hydor - 600l/h). Two 75watt heaters from "Jäger" and one eheim aquaball (newest version) for oxygen. both filters and the aquaball have a diffusor.

there are 31°c in the tank and if i do a waterchange of 50% the watertemperature changes to 23°c.

ph: 6,5 gh: 5 kh: 2 (without any influence by me)

hope these are enough informations for you..

Nice set up.

Just one suggestion, ensure all the caves are at an angle leaning backwards, the eggs are none adhesive to the cave surface, this helps the male keep them in the cave.

Dave

dave wrote:Nice set up.

Just one suggestion, ensure all the caves are at an angle leaning backwards, the eggs are none adhesive to the cave surface, this helps the male keep them in the cave.

Dave

hm this is not easy because the caves at first row of caves is on slate.

just one question: what shall i do on next spawn ? seperate the eggs as fast as i can or give the male a next try ?

Hi Christian

My experiences.

I have raised eggs away from the male and with the male.

With the male never more than 7 or 8 fish. Sometimes no fish.

Away from the male 10 to 20 fish.

I do know once the egg ball starts to break some fish are either ejected ( I have managed to syphon some of these up ) or just lose their way.

IMO experience of the male is likely to play a big part, but in saying this the whole egg ball was ejected after 4.5 days with the last spawn, these I am raising artificially. ( I have 15 fish now from the ejected ball )so the eggs were fertile

Now this male is quite experienced so it got me thinking. While there is a trigger to make these fish spawn, is there also a set of circumstances which will make them abort the spawning?

To separate the eggs or not?

The problem with separating IMO is that we may be raising generations of fish that lose their instinct to care for their young ( As with captive bred Angel Fish ), but to counter this there is such a shortage of these fish in circulation.

And finally, raising the eggs away from the parents no snub noses, allowing the male to do it's duties 2 snub noses.

Hope this helps

Dave

Miezekatze wrote:

dave wrote:Nice set up.

Just one suggestion, ensure all the caves are at an angle leaning backwards, the eggs are none adhesive to the cave surface, this helps the male keep them in the cave.

Dave

hm this is not easy because the caves at first row of caves is on slate.

I agree nice setup with allot of caves. At least it should ensure the zebras don't fight for a spawing cave.

Regarding the cave angle, you can place some sand or rocks so that the caves lean more to the back.

Miezekatze wrote:

dave wrote:Nice set up.

Just one suggestion, ensure all the caves are at an angle leaning backwards, the eggs are none adhesive to the cave surface, this helps the male keep them in the cave.

Dave

hm this is not easy because the caves at first row of caves is on slate.

just one question: what shall i do on next spawn ? seperate the eggs as fast as i can or give the male a next try ?

Leave them, my male kicked out all his eggs after the 2nd day the first time he spawned. Second spawn, he got 6 fry. Now, third spawn. I think also 6, he looks to be more confident - even when I shine the light, he doesn't care as much as he used to. Before, whenever I shined it he would wag his tail, no he just waits for 'that dumbass with the flashlight to stop peeking'. Also, raising them artificially is no easy task. Constant care is required to make sure no fungus takes over. I once raised 17 eggs from my L236 male, only 6 survived to the wriggler stage. The male does a much better job, it's his duty after all.

I think they get some sort of nutrition from the male maybe? My L236 male had wrigglers that stayed with him for 1 month after they hatched!