zebra babies with parents ?

duonri · Post by **duonri** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:12 pm

Tank size : 150 litter (long). Many caves.
4 zebra adults. 10 zebra babies.

Do you think I can keep the babies and grow them up with the adults ?
Thanks.

Post by **John** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:05 pm

First of all congrats ofer

You probably get replies that it is possible, i won't challenge that, however i personally have had bad results leaving babies with the parents.
I will not try it again, a fry trap gives me much better results.

duonri · Post by **duonri** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:23 pm

Thanks, John !

Since the fry trap is small, for how long you keep the babies there ?

Post by **John** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 8:59 pm

For a few weeks till they are eating well.
Then they go in a 100 liter tank where they grow till 4 centimeters with other hypancistrus spec. babies.
This tank i do overfeed and do a daily 50% wc, this gives me very good survival rates and growth with all my hypancistrus.

duonri · Post by **duonri** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:10 am

Sure, thanks !

jerry58 · Post by **jerry58** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:28 am

Hi duonri

Congrats on the babies I agree with John except one thing I personally lost 2 babies from my 2end spawn they looked ok I don't know why they died, now I take them out if they are out in the tank when I do daily cleaning if big enough they go in another grow on tank if not they go in a breeder in the same tank till big enough.
Saying that here is a pic of the 4th spawn taken yesterday and on the right I think is the only one from 1st spawn my alpha male kicked out when born

My way is if they are out and about collect them.

If in cave with dad leave alone.

Hope this helps. Jerry

andrewcoxon · Post by **andrewcoxon** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 1:32 pm

John wrote:For a few weeks till they are eating well.
Then they go in a 100 liter tank where they grow till 4 centimeters with other hypancistrus spec. babies.
This tank i do overfeed and do a daily 50% wc, this gives me very good survival rates and growth with all my hypancistrus.

hey john! any pics of your grow out setup?

is it bare bottom or sand??

hope your well mate!

duonri · Post by **duonri** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:14 pm

Hi Jerry,

Do you say that the baby we see in the cave is from 1st breeding while dad is busy with his 4th ?

Jo's Zebs · Post by **Jo's Zebs** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:17 pm

I use a custom fry trap which fits the males cave then when the fry are kicked out they are safe in the trap

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:21 pm

Yep- I am in the other camp from John. With the exception of spreading out babies in order to reduce the chance of a total wipe out, I prefer to leave the eggs/babies with dad. And once they have been pushed out of the cave, they also do better in with the parents in terms of growth rates than they do in growout tanks.

It may be easier for me to work this way since I have been fortunate to have gotten a lot of spawns over the past 3 years.

jerry58 · Post by **jerry58** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:14 pm

Hi duonri

Yes he is the only male breeding out of 2 and he breeds with the 2 other females one older and one slightly younger but out of the 2 the older one seems keener than the younger one,got plenty of time to catch up in her own time .You would be right in thinking he is tending to his 4th spawn while he has one from first spawn (he is a busy little fellow)

Thanks Jerry

Post by **John** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:22 pm

andrewcoxon wrote: hey john! any pics of your grow out setup?

is it bare bottom or sand??

hope your well mate!

Doing well, tnx mate

Sorry no pics, it's a simple bare bottom juwel 96 tank.
2 doublesponge airlift filters, 2 airstones and a heater as technical stuff.
Decoration is 4 roofslate plates 40x20 cm stacked above eachother with various sizes small caves and stones in between creating plenty hiding places of various sizes.

Will try to put up a pic one of these days

andrewcoxon · Post by **andrewcoxon** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 11:59 am

thanks for the reply dude!

do you regulary clean the glass bottom to avoid bacteria build up or have you had no problems with this?

thanks,

andrew

Post by **John** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:23 pm

andrewcoxon wrote: do you regulary clean the glass bottom to avoid bacteria build up or have you had no problems with this?

thanks,

andrew

No, just syphoning dirt every day, this i do combined with the daily wc.
I have over a 100 young hypans and young L134 in there which feed over the entire bottom every night and they keep the glass spotless, no bacterialayer build up.

duonri · Post by **duonri** » Fri May 01, 2009 6:55 am

Follow up:

I have moved the babies to a fry trap.
They looked fine and ate well. But after 3 days I lost one baby, and 2 more days the 2nd died.
So I moved the others back to the main tank ( with 4 zebra adults ). They look OK and eat well for the meanwhile.

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