I have fry in 3 tanks. Two are strickly for growout and the third is the breeder tank. The breeder and one grow is bare and the other has small gravel.
The best gtowth results come in the breeder tank. I have not noticed a huge difference in growth rates between the bare and the gravelled growout tanks.
I would note that the breeder tank is kept a couple of degrees F warmer than the growout tanks- 86 v 83/84.
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
Hi
I leave mine in the zeb tank I suppose this is classed as a breeding tank as the whole colony lives in there on there own and breed. I use a fry trap for a while sometimes. My tank is 400L gravel bottom bogwood stones and caves a couple of plants. I do feed lobster eggs, ready feed brine eggs ,fry flake, carnivour tablets , bloodworm pellet, tetra prima, brine shrimp all the time fry or no fry weekly big water change with hma filtered water it works for me.
L number plecos and pleco products worldwide delivery www.rareaquatics.co.uk
I have never taken pics of either growout tank, The breeder tank gets broken down completely about every 3-4 months in order to get fry out. I try to put it back together as close to how it was before, but I am sure its always a bit different.
I have a running thread about my experience with breeding zebras which i started in April 2006 at Barbie's sire, Fishaholics. It has pics and descriptions. You can read through it here: http://www.fishaholics.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2288
What makes the common person uncommon is common sense.
Andrew
Don't have any pictures of my growing out tanks, as they don't have lights over them and it's hard to get decent pictures.
The two tanks are 22G, and measure; 2.5ft * 1.5ft * 12" (high).
Each one is filtered by an Eheim external cannister filter, with a UV Sterilizer fitted to it, plus a sponge filter in the tank, which helps provide oxygen and somewhere for fry to graze on when they are really young.
The UV Sterilizer is only used for the first six months and then reduced a little each week until it is no longer needed.
I only use a UV Sterilizer because i was having trouble with fry dying not long after they hatched, and it was one of the things i started to use that i think has helped to stop the fry deaths, but if you are not using one and your fry are surviving fine, you won't need one.
Fry tanks are the same water values as my tanks, ph7, kh 1 & gh1, because as soon as i find any fry in the parents tank, i sypthon them out into a tub and put them staight into a grow out tank.
I find i can feed them better in a grow out tank, which is three times a day, early morning, tea time and just before lights out.
In the morning i feed ZM Fry foods, started with ZM 100 and working up the different grades of ZM Fry food as they grow, at tea time i feed them freshly hatched baby brine shrimp, then just before lights out i feed them frozen cyclops.
Just my preference, but i don't feed them any of the larger foods, including tablet food, and won't do so until they are bigger.
I mainly fed large food when i first got fry, and it was one of the other things i changed that seems to have helped stopped the fry deaths.
ZM Fry foods is the best thing i found for the fry.
For the first six months i do 50% daily water changes, as i tend to over feed the tank a bit, and daily waters help keep the nitrates to a minimum, plus it alsos help with fry growth.
After six months i change 30% every second day, and will lessen it with time.
I understock a fry tank as well, mainly because of nitrates again, and if ever i have an outbreak of anything, then i don't lose too many fry.
For decor i have a couple of pieces of slate propped up at one end, plus a cave, and find at a young age the fry like to hide out together, mine don't use the cave i have in the tank, they like the slate things.
Though i have seen Rob's fry tanks and his seem to love the caves, not sure what it is.
I find a lot of fry, like adults like to squeeze in behind the outlet of a cannister filter and the under side of a sponge filter.
Come to think of it, they'll hide under or in anything !
Hope that helps.
Edit; forgot to mention i use a thin layer of sand on the bottom of my grow out tanks.
For the first six months i do 50% daily water changes [..]. After six months i change 30% every second day [..].
OMG...
why are you all doing such a hype about the L46? I'm for business in Shanghai now for 6 month and my girlfriend cares for my L46 tank. She changes water every 2 - 3 Weeks. 60L of a 200L tank.
However, the frys are growing and they are growing fast. There is no need to separate them from the adults, feed them in a special way or make daily water changes! My opinion..
For the first six months i do 50% daily water changes [..]. After six months i change 30% every second day [..].
OMG...
why are you all doing such a hype about the L46? I'm for business in Shanghai now for 6 month and my girlfriend cares for my L46 tank. She changes water every 2 - 3 Weeks. 60L of a 200L tank.
However, the frys are growing and they are growing fast. There is no need to separate them from the adults, feed them in a special way or make daily water changes! My opinion..
Miezekatze
Work on your own fry rearing techniques before cristising others.
It is stuff like this that chases people away from zebrapleco, and i have to say it, but 2-3 week water changes on a fry tank is nonsense.
sorry, but i have to say that it's just the hype bringing people to this forum and to the fishes. first i did the same, but then i noticed that there is no need of. they are just very nice fishes, nothing more.
all the questions regarding e.g. tank or feeding have been answered thousand times. Sometimes it really hurts when you get the same questions again and again although the L46 is just a catfish like the L134 or the L270 or all the other ones. There is no need of a special treatment. I don't mean no harm, but it is as i'm saying. Just a pleco!
I'm doing (my girlfriend in germany does) water changes every two to tree weeks, and it works really well. But I have to say that my 200 liter tank is filtered by two very powerful 600L/hour / 800L/hour filters, this might be the reason!
Some people might be here for a hype, but they don't last.
However there are newbies who really are curious for info and i think it's the function of this forum to help them.
Sure a lot is allready written, but new things are still to be discovered.
If all this work by Andrew c works for him and he wants to share this it might give others methods to work with.
Not all of us are fortunate to raise fry without problems.
Christian, i think you forgotten your early days on tilo's site.
Please don't turn into a motoro here and stay helpfull as you used to
Greetings,
John
[img]http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x276/hypancistrus-zebra/half.gif[/img]
Miezekatze wrote:
all the questions regarding e.g. tank or feeding have been answered thousand times. Sometimes it really hurts when you get the same questions again and again
if thats the case then why bother answering. no one if forcing you to read this thread or reply.
My Pleco's:
4 x L46
5 x L174
5 x L134
5 x L287
5 x L257
2 x L236
I think it is difficult to ever say one subject has been fully covered and therefore go and look for answers elsewhere.
I have been lucky over the last 5 years to have these fish and successfully got them to breed.
However I like many other people are interested to improve the techniques I use, get opinoins from other people and see if I can increase the survival rate of my fry.
For years I have been keeping my fry in with the parents until in the space of two weeks lost over twenty fry. PLastic Mac at the time seemed to be expereincing something similar.
Now I do things differently, move fry to a seperate rearing tank after they have spent 8 weeks in a breeding trap(this I find helps target feeding and maximises the amount of food the fry get) suspended in the main tank. I use ZM food 100 upwards as they grow. After six months I introduce frozen bloodworm, daphnia and bribeshrimps
All my tanks are bare bottom with 4-5 peices of bog wood (still think this helps the digestive system!).
My tanks are cleaned out every 2-3 days approximately 20%.
My main living room tank is cleaned out every four weeks, though this has nothing of great value or rarity and I do think it should be looked after a bit more offen.
Yes the zebra is as you say just a fish, whereas to many people a ferrari is just a car. But when it is something desired for a long time, paid substancially more than any other it has a greater attatchment to people and I all think that we need to accept that everyones desires and facinations are different but lets not deminish them.
) and i was just wondering what gives best results.
and stay helpfull as you used to 
