Hypancistrus zebra (L046) spawning

[AleGer]

I don't even know how many zebra I have in my zebra tank. I bough zebra many times. And Now I even don't remember how many I bought. I suspect that I have 8 of them. I definitely have one adult male, and one adult female. The rest are unsexible subadults.
The aquarium dimensions are 55x40x45 cm. The tank with with stones, fine sand and bone caves. As a filtration two 1200 l/h pomps with sponge. The light turn on not often.
The water conductivity is from 40 to 100 microsimens. Some times I add more top water (500 microsimens) and increase conductivity to 300 and more microsimens. After that I began changes with RO water (30 microsimens).
The temperature is from 27 to 31 C. Some times I increase the temperature to 35 C for several days.

Male:


Female:


The male with the fry in the cave:


The fry first day out from cave:


The fry 1 day out from cave:






The fry 2 days out from cave:
On this day the fry began to eat.


The fry 3 days out from cave:


The fry 4 days out from cave:

[Nuno Landeck]

Congratulations, they are very nice

[Taratron]

Very cute! Why don't the fry eat on day 1 out of the cave, and what do you feed them?

[AleGer]

Congratulations, they are very nice

Thanks:)

Why don't the fry eat on day 1 out of the cave

The yolk was still present at the first day.

what do you feed them?

Different food: Tetra Tabi Min, frozen Moina, frozen Cyclop, frozen sliced shrimps.

[AleGer]

The fry 5 days out from cave:

[in2plecos]

Very nice! Thats awesome.

[PseudaSmart]

Very nice! I had a group for a year and could not figure them out.

[Matt30]

Congratulations mate, and I like your bone caves they look grate!

[AleGer]

The fry 6 days out from cave:

[jsalas623]

Nice!!! Very well done!!

[Nuno Landeck]

Very very nice, and the ph?? Do you think they spwan at 7.0???

[AleGer]

Do you think they spwan at 7.0???

I don't think so. I don't measure pH to often. I know that my RO water is approximetly 6.7 pH, my tap water is approximetly 7.7 pH. In my H.zebra tank it is now 7.6 pH. But few last water changes I did with tap water.

[AleGer]

The fry 7 days out from cave:






The fry 8 days out from cave:

[AleGer]

The fry 9 days out from cave:

[Nuno Landeck]

Awesome. . .
what do you feed the parents??

[AleGer]

Nuno Landeck, almost the same as fry. Tetra TabiMin, frozen Moina, frozen Cyclop, frozen sliced shrimps. But also I give them frozen Artemia, alive sliced Tubifex tubifex and red mosquito larvae.

[Nuno Landeck]

OK, Thanks . . .

[Taratron]

If you don't mind me asking, do you breed the fish in RO water, or is your pH low and acidic? A fishkeeper friend of mine maintains that the reason mine aren't breeding is because they aren't in RO water. I notice you said you use tap and RO in a mix, but is there a reason you don't use just RO?

[AleGer]

Taratron, I don't mix RO+tap water for changes:) I use only RO water for changes in some period of time. When the water in the tank becomes almost RO, I begin to make water changes with tap water. After several tap water changes, I again begin RO water changes.

I know one guy from Ukraine who breed (but not often) his H.zebra in tap water, and no RO water at all.

[smitty]

A great spawn.

[AleGer]

The fry 10 days out from cave:

[AleGer]

The fry 11 days out from cave:

[Unungy]

They look big for a 10 day fry.
well done.

[nvcichlids]

beautiful fish! I cannot wait til the day I can keep some myself.. I also cannot wait for the day that my fish room isn't regularly crashing and I am loosing almost everything *sigh*

These threads keep me positive and motivated!

Thank you for sharing.

[AleGer]

They look big for a 10 day fry.

Well, 10 days out from cave. And when I got out them from cave they were already quite developed.

Actually there some mismatching of the age happens from time to time.
In our country we usually starts counting the age of fry when the fry's yolk sucks out and the fry begins to eat. When the fry has yolk we call it fish larvae.
Here on planetcatfish the age of the fry starts counting when the fry hatches. And I try to represent the same way. But When I find already well developed fry in the cave, I can only guess when they were hatched. The same situation is here. I suspect that they (zebra fry) already where about 7-9 days old when I got them out.

So actually they are approximately 18-20 days old.
And now they already 20 mm TL.

Thank you for sharing.

Thanks.
And of course thanks everybody for positive replies!

I was always motivated by Haavard Stoere's threads. They all are awesome! I'm not such a good as he, but due to him I decided to create such threads:) And I hope that people find my threads also interesting.

[AleGer]

The fry 12 days out from cave:

[AleGer]

The fry 13 days out from cave:




L046 with L340:

[AleGer]

The fry 14 days out from cave:


L046 with L340":

[myjohnson]

Wow, I straight have zebra pleco envy right now.

[AleGer]

The fry 15 days out from cave:






L046 with L340: