# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Catfishes >  eeeeemo's Zebra Plecos (Hypancistrus zebra)

## eeeeemo

Hello! haven't update on my zebras for quite awhile.
sadly, no activity.. instead the beta male has been challenging the alpha quite a lot recently... i decided its time to change the set up..
or more like, splitting the colony.

now i have two tanks of 3s.
i was told that once a pair is confirmed, even if you place the pair in a tank of their own they are able to breed without sexual tension caused by males fighting! so,

first tank consists of alpha male, alpha female and charlie male.

second tank will consist of beta male, delta male and suspect female.

since the separation as of today. it is quite clear that the suspect female does not like taking up caves... i am crossing my fingers!

i hope this move will ease the fighting so the zebras can focus more on breeding. after all, 6 adults in a 2ft is very cramp...

happened to take out my camera today and take some photos of all my tanks. here are the pictures. =)

tank #1


tank#2


apologies for the very dim lighting.... these two are the closest photos of what the tank really looks like in person. though i feel it is even nicer still. hee hee

wish me luck!

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## eeeeemo

alpha male!



beta male!



alpha male and beta male from the top!
notice the difference in size. *SMALLER male is alpha male*


alpha female and suspect female(right). suspect female is actually a L098.

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## Gecko

establishing dominance is very often a prelude to breeding, breaking up the fight prematuredly might set you back a couple of months...a successful breeder in the US removed a breeding pair to a new separate setup (same thoughts as you) and discovered that maybe zebras breed only (or more readily) within a colony setup, hopefully your experience might be different.

The fish you pointed out is not a L98.

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## Savant

I like your setup, nice use of driftwood.... I like your black sand too... 

I would think that with 3 in each tank, the fishes are left with less choices as to who they want to go to bed with... Nonetheless hope they do breed soon... 

We spoke about this, I am thinking that you may want to upgrade to a 3 ft tank (or a 2 tier 3ft - then you can do the 333 as well) to spread out the aggression and yet provide choices... once done, *you* should really leave them alone for a while... 

L98 or not, I hope that female breeds and we can see more irregular offspring...

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## eeeeemo

> establishing dominance is very often a prelude to breeding, breaking up the fight prematuredly might set you back a couple of months...a successful breeder in the US removed a breeding pair to a new separate setup (same thoughts as you) and discovered that maybe zebras breed only (or more readily) within a colony setup, hopefully your experience might be different.
> 
> The fish you pointed out is not a L98.


heys. how does a L098 in your opinion look like? can share a picture? i thought an L46 that display curve lines on the body profiles = L098..
i just observed them today.. the second tank is doing good for now. the suspect female has now started to camp outside the beta male's cave.. and that has never happened in the original tank.. the suspect female would always hide behind all the caves and the alpha female never ever wanted to camp outside the beta male's cave (always above the alpha male's cave) another sign was their tummies are fuller than usual...

i split them up mainly because each of the fishes are at least 2.8 inch SL.. and no matter how much driftwoods i use to split their line of sight.. it will only leave each zebra a ground space of less than 300cm^2 of space to move about...

i have thought of having a larger tank many times.. but i cannot house one unless i sell my bed.

i purposely leave at least one male/suspect male around to cause sexual tension.. in fact, the suspect male is also starting to display female behaviors... in tank#2(beta male), he is refusing to take up any of the free caves... and would rather hide on the sides or sometimes spotted at the top of the beta male's cave... o well... they are really confusing me..

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## eeeeemo

hmms. here is the suspected male that is acting like an ah gua (refusing to tank any of the excess caves and hanging around beta male's cave), therefore becoming a suspected female.

i have posted his picture before for sexing and i remembered Irwin commenting that it could be a female.

any chance?? or more like.. how possible? how much chance?

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## Gecko

Aqualog has a nice picture of a L98. Planet catfish, if you search under L46, has a picture of one too with the guarded discription of "with lines resembling that of a L98".

I have maybe 6 or more of those zebras with wavy lines similar to yours, they are L46s.
All L98 are wavy lined zebras but not all zebras with wavy lines are L98 (which partly explained why they are so rare). Its my opinion that the one pictured in Datz is not.

The exporters are now habitually labelling interesting marked L66, L333 epecially juveniles, and the newly discovered Hypancistrus Sp (lower Xingu) and L400 etc as L173, L236 or L98 because the latter 3 commands a big premium for their scarcity...and most if not all hobbists buying them are seeing them for the 1st time.

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## eeeeemo

yes. i saw shipments of L345 labeled as L173 .. one in the L173 batch was even the common L129.

thanks for explaining. just to confirm.. is this an L098: http://www.transfish.de/LCode/L098.jpg

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## Gecko

This is the same picture used in Datz. I dont think it is a L98. Both L46 and L98 are Hypancistrus zebra, same species. Look at the tail and dorsal fins of the transfish picture, they (shapes, etc) do not resemble a L46's.

The fish in my avatar (left) has very similar markings, likewise bought as a "L98".

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## Crazy Dragon

> hmms. here is the suspected male that is acting like an ah gua (refusing to tank any of the excess caves and hanging around beta male's cave), therefore becoming a suspected female.
> 
> i have posted his picture before for sexing and i remembered Irwin commenting that it could be a female.
> 
> any chance?? or more like.. how possible? how much chance?



Hi,

The L46 in the picture seems to be suffering from dropsy. Scales seem to be "protruding out".

Hope I am wrong.

regards

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## eeeeemo

hmm if you look at all the photos.. every of my zebras look like that! and i doubt its dropsy.. cause this was 3weeks before they spawned for me. and they are displaying blue tinges on their fins.. a good sign that they are healthy.

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## Savant

Its not dropsy, if you look at Benny's pictures of L46 in the sexing thread, you will find that the females are like this... Guess the zebras in Singapore have too good a life...

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## eeeeemo

> Hi,
> 
> The L46 in the picture seems to be suffering from dropsy. Scales seem to be "protruding out".
> 
> Hope I am wrong.
> 
> regards


hmmmm... aren't catfishes scaleless...?

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## Savant

Congratulations  :Smile:  :Jump for joy:

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## eeeeemo

hahaha basket.. you gave away my surprise!

fine! time to update my zebra thread..
they have spawned. alpha male + beta female.

day 4 now. 3 eggs were kicked out unfertilized.. but if i did not count wrongly. this spawn is a spawn of 15 with 3 unfertilized.
is this a good batch number?

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## Savant

Wahahahah... Not many people caught it mah...

Time for some pictures...

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## eeeeemo

hello hello!

haven't update for so long.. removed the fries from the cave today!

now i have got 11 wrigglers, one egg sac burst in the process =( and 3 died infertile before that.

when do i start feeding them??

Day 5 (first day of removal from cave)
here you can see one egg looks like it burst and is leaking the egg white.... i was scared too.. but at closer look.. it looked like the egg white was squeezed out of the outer shell through a slit and has not burst! and so i hoped and waited....


Day 6 (in the process of hatching)


End of Day 6 (Now, all hatched!!)
moment of relief... even the egg that looked damaged survived.


forgive me for the unclear pics, they keep moving around and the camera can't focus with all the tiny bubbles moving around the trap.

11 survivors.. 6-7 more days to go before they are stable young zebras??

what do you guys feed your babies?

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## eeeeemo

Daddy


this spawn has many interesting things i took note of.

this is a spawn between alpha male and beta female.
spawning activity took place 2 weeks before the actual spawn. (approx. 3-4 weeks from now)
i noticed the zebras kept changing caves.. every time i checked on them males will be in caves that they weren't at the day before. 

soon, a week before spawning, i noticed the alpha male has trapped a female in his cave. i could not identify the female.. but i was really excited as i have waited for 6 months for them to start going. the excitement did not last as i found the female has left his cave the next day with no spawn.

throughout the entire time that i have kept them.. the females has always like occupying a hollow in the driftwood that is above the alpha male's cave (in photo). mostly by the beta female. but never any of the males took that hollow.

last Saturday morning, as usual i went to look at the changes in the positions of the males in the tank.. and to my surprise i saw the alpha male take the hollow above his own cave. at first i was like "ahh the males finally saw the beauty of a good old natural driftwood hollow!" but as i squat down to eye level and look closer..... "OH MY GOODNESS I SEE TWO TAILS!"

two trappings in 2 weeks..

i informed my close friend wei quan aka chendol about it. and our thoughts concurred. "This is it. Finally."
indeed, a day went by.. and a second.. and she left on sunday night.. monday morning did a spot check. He guarded his cave like i never saw him did for the past 6mths. "there must be eggs!"

i suspect the male has waited long enough and he want babies!!! so he went to trap the beta female in her own cave...

i wanted to keep it secret and only share this when i have successfully hatched them.. so here it is.. a piece of my joy.

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## Crazy Dragon

Congratulation! 

What is the size of the egg?

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## eeeeemo

haha i did not measure. did you measure yours??
hmm is it possible for two spawns to occur in one tank..

i just went to shine around the zebra tank and i noticed the alpha female is much skinnier than yesterday.. when i went to look for the beta male.. i noticed he just changed his usual guarding area and he defended this driftwood that was very deep in the tank.. i can't see if there are eggs or not.. but i suspect another spawn has just occurred between alpha female and beta male.

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## weiquan

dude if its really 2 spawnings, you be showcased in "ripleys believe it or not"  :Laughing: 

Congras on the spawn dude!

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## eeeeemo

hmmm when do you guys feed your fries??
the wrigglers are starting to show black patches.

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## Savant

I am having an issue with fries converting from egg sac to solid food, so better prepare all your fry food in case they do not accept the regular... and stock up on the good advice!!

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## eeeeemo

haha! yeap.. just posted at your thread..

i am quite sure they would take up hikari carnivorous pellets.... and i will try to feed as sparingly i can cause i only have 11...

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## eeeeemo

update.

Clocked another spawn yesterday.

Alpha Male trapped Alpha Female in his cave like driftwood!

this male is weird. he only inhibits the driftwood when he knows the females are ready! the rest of the time he occupies a slate cave under the same driftwood.
hope this time i will have more eggs than the first.  :Jump for joy: 
the alpha female is almost 1.5x the size of the beta female which spawned the last time.

managed to count 8 fries at one go on some nights! they like clinging to the walls of the tank when the light goes out.. only coming down to feed after i dumped the pellets in~ but today managed to see them while the lights are on.. and they love clinging on to driftwood and seem to be grazing on them.

can anyone advise on the amount/number of hikari carnivourous pellets fed to 6x~3.5inch adults and 8x~1inch fries? feeding only once a day after lights out.

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## Gecko

There's no fixed amount, you can try this: assume one pellet per adult and one pellet for 3 fry. Feed about 9 pellets 1st night, for babies drop the pellet right next to their hiding place. The very next morning, check amount of leftovers...if none, and there are no tankmates, increase to 10, etc, as babies increase in size, food must increase appropriately. Hope this helps.

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## eeeeemo

hmm i fed 5+3 tablets yesterday.. alittle too much. will reduce to 7.
do males guarding eggs come out for a meal??

the alpha female left the cave yesterday morning..male has been fanning the eggs diligently.

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## eeeeemo

spawn no. 4!!! =)
they are consistent parents. this time the same pair as the 3rd spawn.
is it okay to take pictures of the trapping? the male is agitated even when i on the room lights. but he is brave enough to choose to spawn in front of the tank...

here's my set up.



he has spawned 3x in the driftwood above the cave on the left and once in the same cave when he did not have the driftwood in the past.

i have also release the fries of the past spawns into the tank as i have observed better growth rates when not trapped in a breeder box.

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## Savant

how many fry so far?

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## eeeeemo

14! haha third spawn clocked 9 only, all survived. second only 5 of 15eggs survived =|
hopefully he maintains full mortality this time. third spawn actually had 20+ eggs but he ate off alot .. probably a bad fertilization process.

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## eeeeemo

ooo today when i switched on my room lights the male got startled a bit. his first instinct was and always is to exit the wood hole (that has less cover) and dive into the slate cave below it. i noticed the female exited the wood hole, shown my usual torch into the breeding hole, and omg i could visually count 24eggs!!! there could be more...

QN: is this considered a big spawn?

i switched off my lights and he returned to the wood hole to fan the eggs. 

QN: will this make him eat the eggs since he left them for like a few minutes and then return to them? or are L46s very good parents and will return to care for their eggs as hard as they would have even after ditching it for awhile?

QN: do fathers leave their eggs to feed at night??

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## carlfsk

Hey pal, may know what is the temperature you maintained in your tank?

Do you do weekly water change? TDS?

Or is there any thread on your water parameters?

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## eeeeemo

i have not measured my water parameters since june when i first set it up, just to make sure my filter is running. so far i am very confident of my tank's filtration capability, thus i do not monitor it.

i do water changes irregularly, when i am free. sometimes once a week, sometimes twice, sometimes once in two weeks, sometimes once in three weeks.

TDS... to measure nitrates? does TDS = Total Dissolved Solute??? i am not sure what that is for.. but i know... keep things simple my friend. our tap water, just cycle it well, and water change at least once a week. simple aquarium basics! of course.. i haven't been disciplined enough  :Embarassed: 

temperature around 29-32degrees. v dependent on weather..

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## carlfsk

Roger bro...you make it sounds so simple, while others are struggling... :Grin:  :Grin:

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## eeeeemo

haha its not simple.... i took 4months to understand what patience is all about.

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## redsox

Hi bro, how many adults do you have in the tank? Is there a minimum colony size for breeding to occur?

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## eeeeemo

hi welcome to AQ! i have 6 adults, and i am not that experienced to answer that question.... but just get as many as you can afford.... or as many as you can find.

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## redsox

Thanks, I always thought AQ is a planted forum. Never expect to see so many happenings in the catfish sub-forum! Hope you have more spawns coming.

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## eeeeemo

DAY 3.
did a water change today. i was afraid that zebra daddy will swallow many of the eggs like how he did for the 3rd spawn. Thus, i decided, that with my experience attained from the past two successful spawns/hatching, i am adequate to be a surrogate daddy. I took the driftwood up, held it near the surface of the water and waited for zebra daddy to jiggle out (of fear)....

transferred the eggs to the breeder trap, and counted. 

 :Shocked: 
23!!! fertilized!!! eggs!!
 :Jump for joy:  :Jump for joy:  :Jump for joy: 

so if i counted at least 24 on DAY 1, then he has ate at least one of the hatched eggs. Also, i forgot to mention that i spotted a fungus ed egg on DAY 1 on the floor, which i excluded from the 24count.

therefore, this is a spawn of at least 25eggs of which 1 was unfertilized and kicked out and 1 which either ended up in the same situation or was eaten by daddy zebra instead.

will do updates as often as i can. am too lazy to get the camera battery charging, but photos should be dragged up soon i hope ..

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## eeeeemo

Day 4.



all healthy and seeing thumping heart beats.

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## sgbetta

Heehee so lucky...very productive zebra :Grin:  :Grin:

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## eeeeemo

haha not lucky enough!
i came home to many burst/broken eggs....
i suspect a snail tampered with them. or fungus have ate through the shell.=(
now less than 10 left. hopefully all can survive, most have hatched already.
i guess i should have left them with daddy. or at least for an extra day more.
i learn that eggs are best removed from the father on day 4 instead of day 3. that extra day is crucial as the father can delay the fungus growth for an extra day so the eggs hatch just in time on the next day of the transfer. after which fungus and snails will hardly affect them. 

can't wait till the next spawn! =)
saw beta female hanging on top the male's spawning driftwood. saw him take it up yest for awhile as well. hee hee

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## eeeeemo

Spawn No. 5!!! to be...

haha not yet a spawn. but i was lucky enough to see activity happening.
i turned on the lights of the room my tank was in and got a surprise!!
caught the two females, lined up side by side to each other, and parking outside the driftwood cave that the alpha male had already inhabited.

i now suspect that females FIGHT for their right to breed in front of the male, of which the winner will gain the right to enter the male's breeding cave.
this morning, the female winner is trapped in the cave. =)
same female as spawn 2 and 4.
this is the 4th spawn in 4mths.
hope they do not tire out too soon.

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## eeeeemo

just a small update!

*
*

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## weiquan

dude they sure look darn beautiful.

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## wllm33

congrats on your multiple spawns.
how do you ever see the zebras with so much dw and your tank is eeriely dark. do you have any light on the top tank at all?
don't see any plants in your tank either.
can know what filter you are using for this 2 ft tank?
thanks

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## eeeeemo

i use a small 5w only. and i don't see them much.. they are always hiding in their caves when the lights on. with such low lighting, if impossible to have plants. even anubias and ferns die in such lighting over long periods of time, even when i on the lights for over 10hrs a day. i use atman canisters for the tank.

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## wllm33

thanks for sharing your setup with us.
i guess 5w will not grow anything. This is really an issue with the zebras , such nice looking plecos and can only see them in the dark.
by the way, what is the size of your atman canisters and how many needed.
thanks for sharing your spawns . extremely informative.
cheers.

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