ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

I just did my first cave checks since the first ever spawn in the terra cotta cave was moved by dad so that the eggs are totally hidden from view. Having had a spawn onabout the Dec. 15/16th and another about a week later, I was not expecting much.

The dad with the oldest spawn was hanging closer to the entrance and I could not see past him to check on his fry which should be nearing the free swimming stage and the dad in the terra cotta cave also had his wigglers well hidden. So I figured I would see if the male who had taken to hanging out in the bamboo cave was in there.

When I shone the light in he was there, but his positioning looked funny- like he had somethin blocking him. So I repositioned my head and flashlight for a different view. He bounced and wiggled some which revealed another tail poking out under him, Yep, there is another pleco trapped in there. Looked to be a smaller fish, hopefully a female. If it is and she is old enough I could have 3 spawns in caves- eggs, wigglers and almost free swimmers- all at the same time.

Be still my beating heart. My fish never cease to amaze me.

One quick note- its raining here again- gotta love those barometric pressure changes.

well done to you.!!! congrats
you must have something in the water up your way to keep all you fish spawning.hehe

wish it was me

Hey TTA don't make a habit out of this triple spawning, jou are starting to get some people jealous now


BTW congrats and may many follow

Well the female is out. The male is pressed to the back of the cave in a typical egg gcovering position. But I was unable to see any eggs, so i can't confirm or deny a spawn yet. But I am encouraged by his poistion and behavior.

Last night I did a cave check and they were both in there. More interesting was I spotted what appeared to be a female full of eggs parked one cave over. I do not think I have more than 3 mature males, so she will have to wait for the alpha male to free up from his current spawn. They look to be a couple of days short of completely absorbing their yolk sacs.

There are quite a few of us here that are very jealous right now...

There are also quite a few of us probably researching how much a train ticket to Westchester Co. NY would cost... LOL

Actually just researched where you are... going to be by that area in Mid February.... one may not bring liquids on a plane... but you still can on a train... hmmmmmmm

congrats on your hat-trick!!

No good deed goes unpunished.

I needed to extract fry and juvies from the breeding tanks. I had to do this with 3 spawns in caves with dad's on them. I had no choice as it had to be done to accomodate a buyer travelling a long way for fish.

I set up 3 breeder traps. Then I carefully moved each of 3 caves with the egs/fry/dads into a trap which hung on the side of the tank during all the work. This entailed pulling all the decor nd filtration then netting fish and moving them into the appropriate new home.

Everything went pretty well- except I found fewer offspring than I had expected. When I was done with the fish moving I reassembled the tank and returned each of the caves to the places they came from. The dads were still inside and no fry nor eggs were left behind in any of the traps.

This morning to my dismay, two of the caves were empty. the third with the oldest fry was still intact with dad and fish, but there was no sign of the eggs in the other two. Nor could I spot any eggs with wiggers anyplace.

On a positive note as the year ends I have managed to place a total of 71 zebra offspring with good folks who I am fairly sure will raise em up and attempt to spawn them. I can also report that all 11 adults were in the breeder tank as expected.

I also seperated out 7-8 larger offspring- 1.75 to 2 inches which will form the basis of a 2nd colony along with two adults I have that are not a part of the breeding group.

Sorry about that there TTA. But on the bright side it sounds like you have a nice healthy set-up and some happy fish that will continue breeding for a while to come.