ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

I've been fortunate that since I got into the freshwater aquarium/plants/breeding hobby 4 years ago I've stayed living in the same place. The time had now come for me to move. Fortunately I'm only going 2km south from where I am now and the water is the same. I'm going to be moving 7 aquariums ranging from 10G to 55G. Ultimately Zebra Pleco's are one of my two dream-fish to have/breed. The other being "Triple-Red" Apistogramma cacatuoides which I've been breeding for a couple years. I've figured since I have to almost empty most the tanks to move them I'm going to do some proper tank-decorating of some of the tanks (1 at a time though), as well as repaint my stand (see DIY section) glossy black. Since I'm finally going to have a place where my tanks are a showpiece rather than furniture cluttering the place, I want them looking sharp. Besides, my fish deserve to live in the Ritz!

Once all my moving-house and tank remodelling is complete, I'll be working towards finding myself some zebra pleco's on top of other pleco breeding projects (L204 possibly) and my apisto's. Meantime thtough, I have questions to ask.

When browsing the forum here (thankyou to whoever put this place together!), I see many people use smaller tanks like a 20G long because of having to blend their tap water with RO water. I've also noted that many of the hobbyists using RO water are also in Europe. Is this because of certain water-chemistry in these people's area's (are far as fish are concerned), or more a specific requirement for zebra's? Most other cases I know of people using RO water is to keep/breed discus or very soft-water fish. My apisto's are supposed to breed in softer acidic water and when fed like royalty they breed like bunnies in my untreated tap water (plus AquaPlus for dechlorinator/conditioner). Give them some live scuds/gammarus on top of their blood-worm feasts and that tank will be rockin'!

I do have other questions, but they're kind of based around the answer to the above question, so they can wait for a bit....

Colin

Oh yeah, another thing i forgot to ask...

I have read many posts with people referring to their tap water usually having a high ppm (300-400). Is this number from an aquarium test kit (and really hard water) or is that from using a digital PPM meter/pen?

Any help is appreciated!

Colin

Colin_BC wrote:Oh yeah, another thing i forgot to ask...

I have read many posts with people referring to their tap water usually having a high ppm (300-400). Is this number from an aquarium test kit (and really hard water) or is that from using a digital PPM meter/pen?

Any help is appreciated!

Colin

I get my reading from a digital PPM meter.

i just use what comes out the tap for all my fish cause its easier to keep the water parameters stable this way. i dont have a breeding colony yet so it might change then but im sure it wont.

n00dl3 wrote:

Colin_BC wrote:Oh yeah, another thing i forgot to ask...

I have read many posts with people referring to their tap water usually having a high ppm (300-400). Is this number from an aquarium test kit (and really hard water) or is that from using a digital PPM meter/pen?

Any help is appreciated!

Colin

I get my reading from a digital PPM meter.

Good to know.

I too just use straight tap water in all my tanks, but I'm pretty fortunate to have very good tap water (as far as fish are concerned) and as of yet I don't have any zebra's.

I'd be curious to hear from some of those that use RO water for their zebra's re the reasons why you use Ro water...

Colin

I use RO water becuase the water out of my tap has >40mg/L of nitrates!

mistern2005 wrote:I use RO water becuase the water out of my tap has >40mg/L of nitrates!

I'm assuming then that you don't have a masssive fish room....