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I currently have a 3ft tank with 4 zebs and am thinking about introducing 3 queen arabesque plecs. Apart from the obvious incresed compitition for food, can any one see any other reasons for not putting the arabesque in with my zebras. Does any one else keep other plecos with there zebs? if so what have you found compatibility wise?

Our zebs have 4 Pitbulls as tank mates... - no problems there..

260's are a different ball park though - they are the same size and temperament as the zebs so will cause 'issues' with territories.

One other possibility (quite unlikely though) would be cross breeding...

probably best to avoid then. i dont want my zebs to be on the recieving end of and aggression, plus the arabesques are about 1inch bigger than teh zebs that i have got.

cheers for the input smith rc

Hi
I have 3 Queen Arabsque's in with my colony of Zebs for over a year and have never had an issue.

Personal experience is better than my speculation

A fight between a male L46 and a male L260 over a cave is gonna result in a costly disappointment, i wouldn't risk those kind of situations with my zebs.

Queen Arabesque and H. Zebra is not good companions, for all the reasons mentioned before. The Zeb will loose a fight over both food and caves, and they are in the same family, which means you will have a chanse of cross breeding

My very first adult pair of zebs were housed with a pair of 260 and 134. Later, after losing one zeb and replacing it with 3 juvies I also added a pair of 333. Of 5 zebs put into the tank, 2 came out- 3 were lost. The most agressive plecos in that group were the 260s. The six other plecos all did fine.

Sorry, my other post was made in little time and does not fully explain the situation.
I have 23 Zebras in my colony all in one tank with both sex's present and a few spawnings have taken place unfortunately i have lost fry one both occasions, but this is not due to aggression as the fry are removed into a hatcher to be fed and grown to a better size. The 3 queen arabesque in the tank are all juvies and do not cause any trouble at all so far. maybe when they begin to compete for breeding caves i will notice and move them but at the moment they are quite happy sharing a space under some bogwood with a few of the zebs.
Although i have reservations about whether cross breeding would occur in these circumstances, The zeb's are hard enough to breed let alone inbreed with a Queen arabesque, but i take your point mceve.