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After about 2.5 to 3 years I FINALLY got them to breed!!! About a month ago I had a spawn and was doing backflips only to find that it was an infertil spawn... Now I see at least 3 tiny free swimming babies!!

WOOO HOOO

Congrats- the first live fry are always a rush. There should be many more to come.

Hi GlockFu

Well done on the spawn

Jerry

Congrats GlockFu

A Big congrats, well done

Glock - Many congrats! Mine are just about the same age so I am hopeful it happens soon for me as well! Any pointers, or things you noticed that might be helpful advice to others???

Thanks everyone!

Mine were not babies that I had to rear to breeding age, all of them I aquired at sub adult stage so the wait was definately long knowing that it wasn't just because I was waiting for them to mature.

This spawn actually happened in the tank with 6 new zebras I just bought about 6-7 months ago and 3 adults although one of the adults got killed about 3 months ago through fighting Maybe this is why that happened.

I've had adults for the past 3 years or so and had one spawn early on but then the breeding male got killed after it's first spawn That was a real bumber which put me off for a while and I wasn't actively trying to spawn them after that.

I think what finally got it to work was me getting back into it and actively trying to breed them. I pulled out all the tricks this time. Over the years I would try one new thing and then another and another but this time I went all out and threw everything at them. I transfered 9 zebras (now 8 ) into a 60 gallon tank, filled it with slate for lots of hiding spots, did cold water rainy seasons, built up to the rainy seasons by adding RO right to increase the TDS, measured the TDS and brought it up to about 600 in the dry season and knocked it down to about 100 in the rainy season, I used Almond leaves in the water I mixed to do the rainy season and left the water at about 77 degrees in the rainy season and 85 in the dry season, adjusted the power head to have more flow in rainy season and less in the dry season....

I've also tried an assortment of breeding caves, I made some from broken slate, I've bout some different ones from a couple of members on this forum that were also made of slate. I've bought these other clay ones from I dont know where BUT the ones that they did their business in and the ones they tend to like the most are the rounded clay tubes that I think a lot of people use in Germany. Thats where this happend. the dimensions of the clay tube is 2.5 inches x 4 inches and its not completely round, one side it is flattened to make a somewhat triangle body.

I might have missed some stuff but basically that's what I did and it seems like it's worked so far. Feel free to ask anymore specific questions...Now to try it on a second tank

great news well done

sounds like you've been through the mill with your zebs!

Bout time you have some good news

Fingers crossed its happier times from now on

I have some RO right and *might* try to get mine to spawn once I have a litte more time, until then they will be left to thier own devices!

Over what time period do you raise the TDS from 100 too 600, then how quickly did you drop it? How frequently did you do water changes for the rainy season? Did you not do any water changes during the dry season?
How long did each "season" last and how many cycles did you do?

Lastly, did you leaves the almond leaves in the tank - or just in the pre-prepared water?

Thanks for fielding questions....

Out of curiosity...did the male zebra find and claim his cave when you started the rain cycle, or did he already have his chosen cave to breed in long before you began initiating rainy seasons?

Thanks for all the well wishes and thanks to everyone that has given me sooo much advice and info over the years.

BARBIE.... Yup, the RO Right was taken from your book of tricks ... Thanks! I don't know if you remember me asking you for more details or not, this was a couple years ago.

mistern2005: I raise the TDS from 100 to about 600 over roughly 3 weeks. I then drop it back down to 100 in one week during the rainy season and water changes. I aim to do water chages everyday during the rainy season and usualy do make it everyday but will on ocassion miss a day in a rainy season just because I get busy with other things. What I do is measure the TDS of my tank water and the water I am changing, do some simple math and figure out how much water needs to be changed to hit that 100 TDS mark. Sometimes it is a bit challenging to get it that low but you can figure it out by doing some math along the way (if you need more details let me know and I'll explain the math). During the dry season I do absolutely ZERO water changes. These fish are alot hardier than many expect. I know it's not recomended but I have actually left them for over 4-5 months without doing a water change and they were all fine... Although I don't recomend this . The seasons really varied and depends on my schedule. I aim for 1 week rainy season and 3-4 weeks dry season but it doesnt always work out that way. If I get too busy during any of the seasons, that season gets extended. I do not leave the almond leaves in the tank, I tried this but noticed that they tend to freak the zebras out. They eventually sink so sometimes they will sink down and rest on the openings of the caves and I dont like how I can't control where they go so I ended up just using them in the water mixing tank.

gtp: My male is actually a bit wierd. It seems like he has two homes. He acts as if the second home is his vacation spot. It's all the way on the other side of the tank and he will hang out there but did both spawns in the same tank. He often travels between the two.

How does TDS relate to GH? I know its all to do with dissolved salts and how hard that makes the water, but I have always dealt in GH rather than TDS. From what I can make out you soften the water every time you try to breed them (by dropping it from 600 to 100). How does that relate to GH?

Secondly, are the almond leaves to facilitate this process i.e. are they what you use to soften the water? Or are they for something else?

You are correct that it softens the water but beyond that, I'm not exactly sure how GH plays into this any further than that. Someone else around here might be able to dig deeper into that. I haven't been consistently checking my GH. I've been more concerned with TDS.

I used the almond leaves to lower the PH. My PH comes out of the tap in the mid to high 7 range so I use it to lower it before pouring it in my tank.