Dither fish for L046 and L260

guysmiley · Post by **guysmiley** » 14 Mar 2012, 21:16

I was curious if anyone has kept dither fish with the zebra and queen arabesque plecos and which is recommended?
I have 4 zebra juveniles and 4 queen arabesque juveniles with plenty of hiding spots in a 40g long with a corner filter, a #5 sponge and an eheim professional 3 ( for up to 65g). I will post a pic shortly.
Thanks for any help.

Matt30 · Post by **Matt30** » 15 Mar 2012, 17:39

Hi mate

I personally would only keep Hypan zebras in a species only tank, as do many other people I know
my zebras didn't come out of there caves much until they were about a year old, I would say you have got the wrong catfish if you exspect to see them out and about.

matti2uude · Post by **matti2uude** » 15 Mar 2012, 17:54

I have endlers, corries and cherry shrimp in with my breeding group of L260s.

Suckermouth · Post by **Suckermouth** » 15 Mar 2012, 19:11

Matt30 wrote:Hi mate

I personally would only keep Hypan zebras in a species only tank, as do many other people I know
my zebras didn't come out of there caves much until they were about a year old, I would say you have got the wrong catfish if you exspect to see them out and about.

I agree with the latter part, but I don't think that Hypancistrus zebra has to be kept in a species only tank. However, you should pick tankmates with care. My H. zebra group is with a trio of Ancistrus ranunculus.

Linus_Cello · Post by **Linus_Cello** » 15 Mar 2012, 20:18

There was a thread where someone kept rummy nose tetras as dithers for their zebra tank. I think they stay up higher in the water column so they don't bother zebras much. The other benefit was supposedly the rummy nose tetras make good water quality indicators. I couldn't find the thread. I found the below, but I'm not sure if Apistomaster kept rummy nose tetras with his zebras.

Re: feeding Zebra plecos
by apistomaster » Fri Mar 04, 2011 4:34 pm

...
It is my common practice to keep Peckoltia and Hypancistrus in my Discus display tanks and growing them out to their breeding size. I mostly use L134 or Hypancistrus contradens and Hypancistrus sp L333 as my bottom fish. The H. zebra and L260 are too shy and tend to become starved when kept in community settings. I will not keep L260 and H. zebra in any community settings because every attempt to do so has cost me plecos.
I feel it is best to keep these in species tanks. Sometimes I keep some cherry shrimp with them or a few Rummy Nose Tetras as both make good water quality indicators, especially the Rummy Nose Tetras.
I did not mean to divert attentions away from feeding H. zebra but my experience with plecos is quite intertwined with my Discus breeding projects.

Last edited by apistomaster on Fri Mar 04, 2011 5:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 15 Mar 2012, 20:51

I think many of the smaller Amazonian tetras would work, providing they are happy with the warm water of course.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » 15 Mar 2012, 21:23

I keep a few corydoras similis with my zebras as dither fish, i read similis are a cory that don't mind the warmer waters zebras like.
I don't keep any dither fish with my queens, as i find a group of queens pretty active for a hypancistrus and i also find they are quite voracious eaters, who are quickly out for food and corys would find it hard to compete with my queens for food.

Another option is apple snails, but i'm not sure they are as good a dither as another fish would be.

zeebo · Post by **zeebo** » 16 Mar 2012, 00:09

Hi, although I didn't have the same plecs as you,but before my recent loss, I kept 2 L128's with harlequin raspbora, pencil fish , rainbow fish and a farlowella. They all got along great ..no probs. Prior to this i also had some zebra and longfin danios, however they are very spazzy , zipping all around the tank,all the time, they made everyone nervous and for the most part , the other fish just huddled in corners. Once i removed those 5 fish, everyone was swimming around and happy. I would nix the idea of danios -I never even saw them sleep ! other fish i mentioned , just ideas. all good. good luck with your choice.

Georgie

guysmiley · Post by **guysmiley** » 16 Mar 2012, 04:32

Thanks for all the info. I bought 5 rummy nose and will see how they work out. I'll keep u up to date.

TwoTankAmin · Post by **TwoTankAmin** » 16 Mar 2012, 04:55

Lets see- put $10-$15 worth of tetras in with what- about $500-$600 worth of zebras. One of those tetras has a disease or parasite etc. and the headline reads "$2.00 fish kills $100.00s"

Its OK, however, because the Xingu will always be full of zebras..........

I used to have what I called my "Yipes Stripes" wc pleco tank. I put into it an adult wc zebra duo, 2 L260 males and a P. compta duo. I later added an L333 duo. When I lost one of the zebras after 7 months, I added a further 3 at about 1.75 inch TL. After several years I rehomed the 260s, P. comptas and 333s and kept the surviving 2 zebras. 60% loss of zebras and 0% losses for the rest. Tank was a 30B with a ton of cover and caves.

Since then I pretty much keep my spawnable plecos in species tanks.

guysmiley · Post by **guysmiley** » 16 Mar 2012, 06:19

Twotankamin, do you think it'll be ok to grow out the four L046 and the four L260's in the same tank? Both species are both approx 2". If so, when should I separate them?

TwoTankAmin · Post by **TwoTankAmin** » 06 Apr 2012, 21:00

Well if I were to try having them grow together I would think I would want to separate them at about 2 inches or so. Since I have never spawned the 260s, I can't comment on how they behave at various stages of growth. But I have noticed that zebras follow a progression from free swimming to breeding size.

When tiny you will find almost all of the fry huddled together in one or two spots no matter how much space and cover is available. Somewhere in the one inch range they start break into a few smaller groups and as they clear about 1.5 inches some begin to break away and become more solitary. By the time they are at 1.75 to 2 inches the males are for sure more solitary and the females may or may not hang together at times. (Note all my sizings are TL)

Eventually as they approach spawning age/size the males will try to claim a cave and will defend territory. Females will also be working out a pecking order as well.

So at least I know when the zebras should not be with other plecos, imo. As to the timing of this for 260s, somebody else can chime in.

Sorry to be so slow in posting again but I have been a tad busy.

myjohnson · Post by **myjohnson** » 07 Apr 2012, 19:21

I agree with twotank, it would be best for the zebras to have no other plecos in the tank. Any fish that takes up the same space or eats food really fast should be avoid. These fishes will most likely out compete the zebras for territory and food.

Additionally, I don't know if "ditter" fish really makes zebras more active during the day. Personally, I have rasboras and o-cats in my tank and they have little effect on the zebras.

I do only feed at night. My 14 zebras get feed at 12am, 2am, 4am, and 6am. I been debating if I should expand their feeding time to include times when lights are on. Feeding is about the only thing that makes my zebras active.

Sometimes I hand feed them at 2pm-6pm....and 4-5 of them become very active and brave. They come well out into the open to eat.

wet-handed · Post by **wet-handed** » 07 Jun 2012, 17:22

The rummynose will have a nice red coloration on there head with good oxygen in low oxygen red is not so bright.

Post by **Barbie** » 08 Jun 2012, 09:12

Ember tetras also work nicely because they are smaller by quite a bit, allowing you to have a larger group, but one that would never be a danger to even a newly hatched zebra fry.

I have safely raised zebras and L260 in the same tank for a couple years, no problem, but it was a good sized tank with tons of hiding places (L260 like to hang upside down, zebras want to be crammed in right side up with their noses back into a narrow spot). I also feed quite heavily when I am growing fish out, so I'm sure that helps it work out easier for the little zebras.

Barbie

Zeno · Post by **Zeno** » 08 Jun 2012, 09:57

tetras
corys
ancistrus
shrimps
L333

Line · Post by **Line** » 08 Jun 2012, 13:24

Zebra only tanks work well - and tanks with a lot of companion works very well too.
Never lost a zebra due to companion or because of starving.
Bred them for 9 years by now.

Sometimes (or in my opinion mostly) - it even works better with companion - making the zebras feeling more secure and safe.
But depending on the way you make it.

If you don't notice that your fish are starving or even dying - then your tank is overloaded with hiding places. It should always be possible to see, count, notice all or most fish in the tank. If not, you wouldn't even notice if a fish was injured f.ex.

These tanks with 200 hiding places are ticking bombs as to bacteria and old food. Even if you have a lot of snails or shrimps. Just my opinion.

Rummynose Tetra is an excellent choice - if the tank is big / long enough.
Corydoras sterbai works very well to.

Best regards
Line

Linus_Cello · Post by **Linus_Cello** » 08 Jun 2012, 21:01

Zeno wrote:tetras
corys
ancistrus
shrimps
L333

Isn't there a possibility that the L333 may hybridize with L46 or L260?