How Many Zebras can I Fit in a 25 gallon Tank?

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Is a 25 gallon tank too small for 8 adult Zebras?

Yes
7
54%
No
6
46%
 
Total votes: 13

GlockFu
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How Many Zebras can I Fit in a 25 gallon Tank?

Post by GlockFu »

I have 8 adult Zebras in a 25 Gallon tank. The footprint is 3 feet x 10 inches. I think there are 3 Males and 5 Females. Would you think this tank is too small to house all of these Zebras?

What do you think the max number of Zebras is that should go in a 25 gallon tank?
smithrc
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Post by smithrc »

I had problems with 6 adults in our 30gal...
We sold one and all was ok
Then added a 6th again and problems were back...
moved the 6th on and all has been good since...
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Jo's Zebs
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Post by Jo's Zebs »

GlockFu do they fight a lot of the time is there lots of hiding places and caves this can make a big difference.
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GlockFu
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Post by GlockFu »

There is a decent amount of hiding places but they all hang out on the left side of the tank. There has been a lot of fighting lately which is what triggered me to make this post.

How many Zebras will fit comfortably in a 10 gallon tank or is a 10 gallon too small? Do you think I could still get them to breed in a 10 gallon or should I go bigger?
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Barbie
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Post by Barbie »

The tank volume is basically your dilution factor for anything that goes wrong. Temperature fluctuations are less in larger tanks, ammonia won't build up as fast. In general, your odds of success will be much greater with larger tanks, rather than smaller ones. Can you keep zebras in 10 and 20 gallon tanks? Yep, you can. Is there risk involved? Yep. With my zebras, I don't think there IS such a thing as acceptable risk. It's difficult to look at a 40 gallon breeder tank that's totally empty except for the caves and zebras, but they're happy and healthy and I need to keep them that way, so I deal with it.

After spending all that money on the fish, won't you feel foolish if you lose some of them to water quality issues that potentially could have been avoided? It's WAY easier to prevent it than to problem solve the issue after you've had a crash and losses. Just my take on it though. I know many people that have kept zebras in a 10. Noone breeding them though.

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Zebrapl3co
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Post by Zebrapl3co »

It's in my opinion that a pair of zebra should have at the very least a 20G tank. I've taped quite a few night time sessions of the zebra actvity during the night time. They are very active at night and are all over the tank as well as resting/playing against the currents (for the fry anyway). They love to explore in every corner of the 20G. That makes me think that a 20G is the minimun as they are all over the wall of the tank.

Having said that, I did once keep a pair of zebras termporarily in a 5G tank for 2 months without any problem. But I think their (the zebra) prefference would be a 20G or bigger. For your 8, I think a 3' river setup or even 4' tank would keep them happy.
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Post by GlockFu »

My current 25 gallon is 3 feet long but what is a river setup?
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Post by Zebrapl3co »

GlockFu wrote:My current 25 gallon is 3 feet long but what is a river setup?
*Sign* ever since I deleted all my fish links, I can't seem to find most of the references on the web anymore. Used to have a link that talks about how to setup a river type tank.

It's basically a power head that sits at one end and the the intake is piped via PVC to the other end of the tank. This makes the current flow only one way and give the zebra a bit of a taste of their natural home habitat. This also helps them move around with a bit of effort so they can stretch their muscles more.

You'll giving them a bit more to their existence than just a "chicken farm" operation.
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Post by GlockFu »

Hmmm... thats pretty interesting. Sounds like that was a pretty good description unless there's more to that. But that sounds like a pretty good idea. Thanks!
Zebrapl3co
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Post by Zebrapl3co »

Ok, I manage to finally find one that is pretty good at describing the setup.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/a-river-runs-through-it
I always want to do this, but I never did have a 4' tank to play with though.
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