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hey there ppl havent posted much but been doing lots of reading of yr threads , but cant seem to find many posts about male behaviour during trapping a female , my problem (if it is one ) is tonight i found the dominant male in a cave with another zeb (great awesome i know you say ) but im not that positive that i have a female , could be , but not sure. ( but then who is until they spawn i hear you say ) , yep but i do fear a juvinille male getting caught up with a dominant male ,and have seen photos and read threads of ones that have ,and have seen the damage caused . my question is, shouldnt the male be fanning in some small way if it is a spawning , and if he isnt , should i worry ?
for the record these are 5 years old zebs been together a long time and only aquired them about two months ago, and was basically just conditioning them up .they have never spawned previously for the other owner , this male has always beeen caved up, and the other one is always behind a rock with occasional visits to a spare cave when it suits, but never stays long . hey it may be nothing, and i may have startled them as i went in ,and they both ended up in the same cave by mistake (that does happen right ?) but just thought if they are still there tommorrow is there some tell tale signs to help me determine wheather its a spawn or a battle , at a glance the dominant male was blocking the other one in but no fanning of fins which i find unusual as all my other plecs fan when in this mood
appreciate any advice
cheers

It is hard to know for sure what is up. However, it is very common for mature zebras to be triggered to spawn when they are moved to a new home where the water params or different. remember they are seasonal spawners who are triggered by significant changes in water conditions.

They don't fan until its only the dad and eggs.

Trappings for spawning can range from fairly brief- an hour or 3 to several days and may or may not result in eggs.

You are going to have to use your best judgement here. If it is two males there is the risk of serious injury resulting in death, so seperating them would be wise. However. if it is a couple, then seperating them may abort a potential spawn. The only observation I would offer is that losing a spawn is less of a problem than losing a fish. Is there any way to make out the fish being trapped? If you can confirm its injured, you would probably know for sure if you should seperate them.

Hi
I can't say a lot more than the thread above but to help when you may find which are poss male and poss female as a good point I have noted the tail pattens of my zebs so if in the cave as yours are you can tell who is who in the cave.
I have sketched them down on paper.
Alpha male has 7 stripes
Alpha female has 5 stripes thick one at the bottom
Other young female 6 stripes thin at the bottom
Other fish male or female? 5 stripes second to bottom and one up are joined together on right hand side.
See how it works all tail markings on fish are not the exactly the same so can identify them when only the tail is visible from the cave.

This works well for me hope it helps you.

Jerry