Introduction

[Simon1929]

Hi Everybody,

I am new to fish board as you will have probably guessed. When I first started keeping tropical fish nearly 3 years ago I did not have any knowledge of fish. Now three years later I have sucessfully kept and bred, guppies, swordtails, mollies, platys, Egyptian Mouthbrooders, Jewel Cichlids, Mosquito Fish, Angelfish, Kribensis, Dwarf Cichlids, and currently trying to master Discus.

No I fancy a bit more of a challenge. I have recently getting into plecs. I now have 2 Red Taled Panques, Royal Plec, Choclate Zebra, 2 Albino Ancistrus, 1 Male Ancistrus, 1 Albino Plec.

I also keep a variety of corydoras.

Heres a few questions,

1. Would a Zebra plec go happily with a Choclate zebra, Royal Plec and Ancistrus (different species)?

2. Is £40.00 a reasonable price for a good quality zebra?

Your helpe will b appreciated.

Thanks

Simon

[clothahump]

£40.00 is a good price Simon, remember they will need a slightly different diet to your other plecs.

[Simon1929]

What is the best diet I can offer my Zebra?

[clothahump]

A good quality meaty diet will do very well for Zebras.
Bloodworm, shrimp pellets etc.

[Simon1929]

That can easily be supplied. Have they been known to interbreed with Choclate Zebras. If so would you recommend having them in seperate tanks

Simon

[clothahump]

It would be quite unlikely that they would inter breed in the aqurium Simon, they should be fine together.

[Rusty]

I don't think there wuld be any chance of them interbreeding. It should be ok to keep them together.

[Yann]

Hi!

Sincerely I would not recommand you to buy and put a H. zebra with these tankmates as these are way more competitive for food than he does!
Secondly, the risk of crossbreeding can exist and should not be considered to lightly, even with species of the same genus that have a really different adult size and colour morph!!!
Cheers
Yann

[Dinyar]

I agree with Yann that Hypancistrus zebra is likely to be outcompeted by all the other fish you have in your tank. It may hang in there, but then again, it may not. With an expensive fish like that, you may not want to take the chance.

I would be surprised if a zebra pleco would crossbreed with any of your other fish, including the so-called "chocolate zebra". In nature, animals of different species in the same genus often occur sympatrically (in the same habitat), but that does not cause them to lose their species identity. Quite the contrary, because attempts at interspecific mating have a high cost (sex is hard work, as every couch potato knows, and why bother if it ain't gonna lead to anything?), there is strong selection pressure against it. (This is true even of related species that would never meet in nature.)

Most of the crossbreeds that you see in the hobby are the work of unscrupulous breeders. Animals are pretty scrupulous about preferring sex with their own kind.

Dinyar

[Simon1929]

Thanks for your help guys. He or she will be going in with my small comunity tank, away from other plecs. I may add more Zebras in the future though

Thanks everyone.

Simon

[coelacanth]

In nature, closely related species often school together -- Cyprichromis and Paracyprichromis spp. for example, or different Corydoras, to choose a catfish example -- but manage perfectly well to recognize and mate only with their own kind. Without going into too much detail, this general mechanism (of recognizing and mating only with one's own kind) is at the heart of sexual speciation.

Anyone wanting to blow their mind with discussions of sympatric vs. allopatric speciation, and reproductive barriers should read "Darwin's Dreampond: Drama in Lake Victoria" by Tijs Goldschmidt (MIT Press).
It's about them there Chichlids but fascinating reading.
Pete