Hypancistrus Zebra

[AcidicAngel]

My partner may be getting a group of between 10-20 Hypancistrus Zebra and he's said that because males are so territorial if he get's more than 1 male he's going to sell the extra's and just keep 1 male and all the females and he's going to try breeding them. I've been reading through breeding reports on here and seen that some people have kept them in things like 21" long tanks and bred them in groups of things like 2 males, 3 females. My partners tank is the Juwel Rio 300 and he's worried about keeping more than 1 male in there because PFK says you can't. Also I have a 30"x12"x15"(LxWxH) tank that's not going to have anything else in it but my 3 Hyalobagrus Flavus. I was wondering if a male and 2-3 female Zebra's would be OK for life? If not then I'll just have 1 on it's own. Apparently to breed you need a group of 8 minimum(1 male, 7 females) because any less than this and the male will kill the females because they are so aggressive. My partner is being a little harsh about this, he says that yes if he get's more than 1 male from his group then I can have one of the males for my tank for free(YAY!) so I said
"Would you be nice enough to let me have 2-3 females if you get yours to breed? I'd like to try my hand at it and it would be very helpful for you because I'd be able to buy my train tickets down here."
Just dropping a few hints and he went
"No. You can have a male but you need groups of 8 to breed and your tank isn't big enough for 8. Your tank technically isn't big enough for 1 because they are so territorial, they need a 36"x18"x18" to keep even a single one."

I know my tank isn't big enough for 8 but even after reading the breeding reports on here I've found you don't need a big groups and you can keep 2 males together

I'm confused! Can someone help me here? I know that even after everyone answers and I can show him this exact thread he'll still say "Well they got lucky because PFK says they are highly territorial and males will kill females if there's less than 7 of them." I just want answers for my piece of mind

[Richard B]

I'll start my saying that I don't intend to offend anyone.

There is no hard & fast rule governing the breeding of zebras as I know a few people who are very effective at getting theirs to breed in other ways than in your post. They can't all be lucky & although PFK is good, It's not the holy grail for information. What will your other half do if he sells all the surplus males & then loses his only one? Is he totally confident on sexing them when he gets them?

There are many people who will post about their successes & all I can really say is read as much as you can, find facts/conditions etc which are common to most & the trial & error, with back up tanks if possible. Zebras & your hyalobagrus strike me as a poor mix: one likes stationary water & heavy planting, the other needs good flow & a rocky layout.

Lets see the detail in posts by people who are breeding these & how they do it

[Barbie]

My pair of H. zebra that produced well over 100 fry would be shocked to find that it wasn't possible ;). I have two separate groups of H. zebra, and they have produced only one spawn in a few years, since our local aquifer softened the water drastically. The single male that I had separated from the group was nearly killed when I took the first spawn from my Alpha male. He literally skinned him. Took his caudal ray out, all of his fins were all but chewed off. He was a very hurting unit. When I got him better, I introduced a single female I purchased from a friend (so I knew she was cootie free). Within a few months, they started cohabitating, and literally 3 or 4 months later, started regularly spawning. He never did hurt her, but I lost my big male from my group, so I combined these two back in.

Life has been busy, and my H. zebra groups have killed 5 or 6 adult fish over the years, so I'm leery of trying to mix them up to get them going again. Both groups have some fry growing out in their tanks that are now as large as the parents and I had hoped that them coming of age would encourage them to do more than eat and stare at me. I have recently been ramping up my other breeding projects, so maybe it's time to get them out and sex them all again and change my own ratios ;).

Barbie

[saor alba]

From my experience just watch out for nasty fighting between them if theres a few males in same tank but setting out different territories loads of caves/hidey holes should more or less sort that out.(ull always get dominant fight thats nature im afraid and you might get loses occuring
Heres a picture i took this evening in one of my zeb tanks from the fishhouse, a small male trying to trap one of the large breeding females i dont think he,ll have much chance just threw experience that he hasnt got yet.
In this tank theres 7 males 5 females and its one of the large breeding groups of mine that i was going to sell on later this year when the weather picks up,know ill need to maybe need to rethink and put these on hold if the full spawning occurs and then sell them when they stop again.
And this lot of zebs are in a 48x18x18 tank 250 litres or 50 odd gallons

[AcidicAngel]

I know Hyalobagrus Flavus usually likes slow waters and plants but mine tend to like flow... They actually spawned in a heavy flow tank(no babies but eggs) so I think they are happy, they've always been in fast flow and they are in a planted tank with a rocky front layout. At least I have fish that won't try eating the Zebs... My partners Rio 300 has a Polypterus Delhezi in it. Mine has Hyalobagrus Flavus.

So do people think a male and a couple of females would be OK in my tank? It's about 80-90 litres, 30" long. I can provide a lot of caves, I can provide a second tank in case I need to separate the male from the females or vice versa and I can provide a planted and rocky tank to provides coverage and peace for them. Sound good? Or just a male? Would you say I'd be OK to get the male and then at a later date get the females and slowly introduce them to each other? If it doesn't go well I have another tank the male can go in and the females can go in the 30" tank.

[m1ke715m]

why would your friend even bother trying to breed h. zebra with a Polypterus Delhezi in the tank? that doesnt make any sense.. why even bother, if they do breed itd make for the most expensive fish food ever

[AcidicAngel]

why would your friend even bother trying to breed h. zebra with a Polypterus Delhezi in the tank? that doesnt make any sense.. why even bother, if they do breed itd make for the most expensive fish food ever

It's my partner(boyfriend) and apparently he's getting a new tank for the Delhezi(a 500l) and some new Delhezi to go with it. To be fair, at the moment it's about 3" long but I know they grow quickly.

[m1ke715m]

one thing i had a hard time learning when i was new to the hobby is that opinions are like @55$%$les, everyone has one and they usually stink...

most of the time there are no steadfast rules or absolutes to what works and what doesnt when it comes to breeding fish.. what might work for you might not work for someone else and what doesnt work for someone else might work fine for you.. you have to play around with things for yourself and see what works and what doesnt. ive gotten into plenty of arguments with people over what they conceive as "wrong". i have combinations of fish that people wouldnt suggest and it works fine for me for example mixing some tanganyikan fish with some malawi fish if you pick the species properly they do fine.. or breeding fish in a tank smaller than recommended but if setup properly it works fine..

in my opinion blindly taking one website's word on what wont work for h. zebra when there are plenty of reports on this forum that say the contrary seems a bit closeminded to me.. luckily for you that particular fish's breeding reports are highly documented and you could present lots of opposing arguments and examples of people it did work for.

[AcidicAngel]

one thing i had a hard time learning when i was new to the hobby is that opinions are like @55$%$les, everyone has one and they usually stink...

most of the time there are no steadfast rules or absolutes to what works and what doesnt when it comes to breeding fish.. what might work for you might not work for someone else and what doesnt work for someone else might work fine for you.. you have to play around with things for yourself and see what works and what doesnt. ive gotten into plenty of arguments with people over what they conceive as "wrong". i have combinations of fish that people wouldnt suggest and it works fine for me for example mixing some tanganyikan fish with some malawi fish if you pick the species properly they do fine.. or breeding fish in a tank smaller than recommended but if setup properly it works fine..

in my opinion blindly taking one website's word on what wont work for h. zebra when there are plenty of reports on this forum that say the contrary seems a bit closeminded to me.. luckily for you that particular fish's breeding reports are highly documented and you could present lots of opposing arguments and examples of people it did work for.

Oh how I wish he'd listen to people like you. I told him and even showed him the reported breedings and he still said "If you want some females you can buy them from the shop with your own money. I'm not giving you good expensive females for the male to kill them." So looks like I'm not breeding as this is my one chance to get any as I don't have £300 spare for 3 juvenile females