O-M-G?!?!?!?!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 2:57 pm

Dr P, I think you're going to be on a high for quite a while.

So I take it that you were just maintaining the tank with weekly water changes? Just out of interest are you using RO water and if so at what ratio to tap water? What's your PH like? Sorry for asking so many questions.

I think that there is definately something to the increased oxygen theory that both you and McEve have observed.

My cousin recently bought 6 zebras, 2 males and 4 females, from a breeder who had managed to breed them 3 or 4 times over a 2 year period. He had 28 babies in total if I remember correctly. He also aerated heavily using multiple sponge filters.

Dr. P · Post by **Dr. P** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 4:19 pm

McEve wrote:BTW, do you know if this was the first spawn for this group?

Definately the first spawn. The guy before us (me n Ewee) that had them says he had them between 1-2 years and not even a hint of breeding.

Adam wrote:So I take it that you were just maintaining the tank with weekly water changes?

20% twice a week usually, but I have to admit, over the festive period, I got kinda lazy and went with 30% weekly changes......maybe this was a contributing factor?

Adam wrote:Just out of interest are you using RO water and if so at what ratio to tap water? What's your PH like?

Nope, plain old aged and treated tap water. The pH sits around 7.2 - 7.4 and the temp sits at a constant of 30.2

I have 25litre Jerry Cans that I used when moving house which are continuously filled, treated and left to age for 24-48 minimum.

At the moment I have a duo sponge filter in the back corner beside the main hang out. This is handy as I use it for added filtration, added aeretion but the main reason was so I can direct food towards the sponges so bits of food can get caught in the sponge and the zebras feed from the sponge instead of the food hitting the floor and bits of it being carried away by the current. Also comes in handy when rearing fry.

I have one 4inch bubble wand on the back wall for aeration.....2 Internal Power Filters (for use in larger aquariums) and 1 Fluval 203 External.

I feed mostly Terta Prima with additional bloodworm, black worm, muscles, cockles, algae tabs and a whole host of shrimp etc.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:30 pm

Dr. P wrote:
McEve wrote:BTW, do you know if this was the first spawn for this group?
Definately the first spawn. The guy before us (me n Ewee) that had them says he had them between 1-2 years and not even a hint of breeding.

I'm glad to hear that, I started thinking my male was extremely gifted as the first spawn resulted in fry

Glad to hear there's more like him out there

Post by **Barbie** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:40 pm

McEve the second male I have spawning now had a fertile spawn the first time. 5 fry, so it's definitely not a rule set in stone, even if I was warned it can be

Barbie

Tom2600 · Post by **Tom2600** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 1:44 am

I'm just playing devils advocate but if the spawn that created Dr P's fry on this occasion came as a complete surprise, could it not be highly likely that the zebras had maybe tried and failed before and it went un-noticed? I'm not trying to offend, just curious?

Cheers

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:58 am

I guess Dr. P should answer this, but since I'm here now

Dr. P wrote:Des wrote
Did you notice that the male had trapped the female in the cave,prior to this event?.

Ayep, it was around 2 weeks ago I saw both male and female (well their tails atleast) in the cave. The male has been camping out in this cave ever since. We've had a bit of interest from the other Zebbies but nothing to write home about. I didn't mention it before as I didn't want to get everyones (including me and Ewees) hopes up too much.

So they knew, just didn't want to tell us all before there was fry

Dr. P · Post by **Dr. P** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 9:33 am

It could be very likely that this was not the first spawn but infact the first successful spawn. I havent noticed any of the zebras actually inhabiting any of the caves for such a long period of time but you never know. Personally, I think this is the first attempt and I got lucky that is was a successful one.

I was looking in the cave last night with a dimmed torch and after a bit of shaking around by the dad I could actually see more fry inside the cave infront of dad!!! I couldn't tell how many as it was a very quick look that I got but I know for sure....there are more. I also found the wee stray that made it out of the cave too eary......it has changed alot already, the body seems sleeker, less egg shaped and the eyes are much darker.

I'll try and keep taking pics through-out the development, aint the easiest thing to photograph with my crappy 2.3MB fuji.

Cascudo · Post by **Cascudo** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:54 pm

Congratulations Dr. P!

That is great news!

I am really happy to hear that more and more people manage to breed zebra's.

Probably because of this site people will learn how to keep them the right way, what increases the change that at some point it isn't complicated anymore to find captured bred zebra's in the lfs's.