ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

A few months ago I was putting together new pleco groups and setting up the fish space I carved out of a storeroom. I needed a bunch of new caves and Barb, helpful as always, sent me to plecocaves.com where I bought about 20 assorted caves. I got round ones, square ones and rectangular ones in a variety of sizes. One of the smaller 1 inch square caves found its way into the zebra breeder tank.

A few weeks ago I noticed a male in residence. This was a new cave in a new location and not the alpha male. It certainly was acting like it had a spawn in there, but the cave was even smaller than my slate ones and I could not see a thing, not even a hint. I could never see eggs, never spotted wigglers nor even saw a glimples of almost free swimmers.

When I did the fry hunt on Saturday, I dutifully placed the cave in a breeder trap to protect it just in case. But my precautions must have been a waste because there was not sign of any interesting activity in the trap the whole time and the cave and male went back into the tank in the same spot when I was done.

As I do every day, I have been doing my twice daily cave checks. And the male was always in there and always acting like he was protecting something but I never ever saw a thing. My heart said fry, my head said nope. You don't have wg=hat you can't see.

TODAY I SAW We have spawn number four for 2009. I spotted a free swimmer scampering under dad.

Hi TwoTankAmin

Well done for your 4th spawn its very clever how the male can hide eggs and fry in such a little space.

Jerry

Congratz TTA on all the success you've been having with your zebras.

I'm in the market for some new caves and plecocaves.com looks like an awesome place for caves. Just wondering if I should buy a variety of shape and size for my zebras? What do you think? Right now I have 6 zebras and there's 3 slate caves in the tank.

Zebras, like any plecos, love tight spaces. I would get the 1 inch square caves. you can also try either the 1 or 1.5 inch rounds that come apart- I use nylon wire ties to hold the halves together. For he bigger zebras the 1.5x1 rectangles may also work.

The caves that come in two pieces can came in real handy of you have a newer group sorting things out. Males trapping and trying kill other males or if you need to pull eggs are a lot easier to deal with..