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I have noted how many of you who are keeping the L-046 seem to be fanatical about your water parameters. From reading on this forum, I've noticed the xingu ph levels to be around 6.5-6.9. The water in my locale is an average of 7.0. What I'm wondering is what does the water acutally look like in the Xingu where the L-046 come from? Is it crystal clear? Silt laden? What exactly are aqaurists trying to reproduce? A simacrulum of the original habitat or a sanitized environment that meets our definition of ideal for such valublle fish?

Actually, zebras seem to do fine in a variety of tank parameters, especially in terms of pH. Spawning triggers are more related to the level of TDS in the water. It is basically an issue of trying to replicate a dry and then a rainy season as it occurs in nature.

That said, mine have spawned without the need for such inducements and they have done so in water with a pH of 7.4. I can say they tend to spawn in response to with water changes that coincide with storms here.

I am in the camp of those who believe that the barometric pressure changes that accompany the onset of the seasonal storms that occur with the start of the rainy season are as important as the TDS considerations in terms of being a spawning trigger.

Could you please explain TDS?

My group lives and spawns in PH 7.8 and 590 MuS , i think that's nowhere near xingu values

TDS refers to total disolved solids. Normally you need a special meter to measure them- either a TDS or a conductivity meter. Basically during the dry season TDS are higher and with the rainy season comes a torrent of new clean and usually cooler water.

Total dissolved solids (TDS) comprise inorganic salts and small amounts of organic matter that are dissolved in water. The principal constituents are usually the cations calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium and the anions carbonate, bicarbonate, chloride, sulphate and, particularly in groundwater, nitrate (from agricultural use).

i found this on a home page.

Rio Xingu:
pH-Wert : 6,5
GH (°dH): 2
KH (°dKH): 4
Temp. (°C): 32
Leitw. (µS/cm): 120
Fe (mg/l): 0.05

smegga wrote:i found this on a home page.

Rio Xingu:
pH-Wert : 6,5
GH (°dH): 2
KH (°dKH): 4
Temp. (°C): 32
Leitw. (µS/cm): 120
Fe (mg/l): 0.05

I'm assuming Fe is Iron, what is Leitw?

Leitwert is a german word it means conductivity, it is measured in microsiemens.
TDS is used in the usa i think, it's the same measurement, but another scale.

Thats rigt, FE is iron and Leitw i conductivity, this is measured in "Micro Siemens".

Woah. Don't bother with tweaking with your water level. My water is nowhere near that of Rio xingu and they spawn without any problem.
It's a role of the dice guys and girls.
- unmatched pairs do not spawn and either the guy beat up the female all the times, or the male is gay and flee his cave when the female enters his cave to laid eggs. (I have one guy like that, I can't figure out why, but he's very good at baby sitter though. Last I count he has 15 baby zebras in his cave. Maybe he's old and incompetent)
- slightly-match pairs spawn once a year.
- semi-match pairs needs constant wet/dry season to help them trigger spawning everytime. You may get 4 or 5 spawns out of these per year. But you have to work till your back breaks though.
- matching pairs only needs to be triggered once and will spawn every two months without the need of triggering again.