BAby Zebras!! Holy Crap now what do I do.

[kigoma]

I never thought ths would happen and in fact I had given up hope. Today I noticed a baby zebra in a cave behind his dad. When dad moved I saw about three more in the cave. They looked quite big and some may have escaped into the main tank. What should I do? There are 14 other adult zebras in the tank as well as two gold nuggets, a copper spot and a royal pleco. Will the babies be destroyed? SHould I remove them and the cave to a breeding box hanging in the main tank or should I set up a whole other tank for the dad and his babies?

Thanks.

Rob

[caril]

how long have u been keeping those zebras before they breed?

[Barbie]

I would probably wait until the babies look ready to leave the cave, then remove them from the male and place them in a container hanging in the main tank, with some form of a flow through system. Those mesh breeder nets and what not tend to gunk up and not allow the water to flow through at enough of a pace to keep the fry healthy. I use a tetra sponge filter, pouring over the top of a specimen container that I drilled a hole in the side of. I then put a piece of sponge in the hole to allow the water to flow through, but keep the babies in, if that makes sense. You'll want to move them once their yolk sac is most of the way absorbed.

My zebras have no spawned yet, so I'm simply giving you advice as to what I plan to do, and what has worked for me with ancistrus in the past. Newly hatched zebras should be able to take newly hatched baby brine shrimp. Is that basically the information you were looking for? Spawning this fish, and other hypancistrus has been covered in depth in the articles in Shanes World, Catfish of the month, and also the iCOSA Ancistrinae Internet Lecture, if you haven't already read those.

Hope this helps. Congratulations! Hopefully people will try to help you, rather than grill you for information too badly ;) There will be time for that later!

Barbie

[doctorzeb]

Congradulation Kigoma

There shouldn't beany problems with keeping them with the male at present. The dad will doa far betterjob of keeping them clean, and healthy than we can with an airstone. Barbie's right though, the delicate part is when they still have the yolk sac, and they can be quite susseptible to changes in water chemistry. If your water is OK, I would refrain from any serious water changes etc. If you need to, do it a little at a time. Once the yolk sacs dissapear, you will be able to remove them and place them in a wee breeder attached to the side of the tank. Good luck trying to catch them though, I still have four "strays" in two of my tanks purely because they refuse to be caught.

Baby brine shrimp is good, alongside, crushed tetra prima. Otherwise you can get dried bloodworms, dried brineshrimp, flake food etc, crush it up with a little water, leave to dry, and then break up into little bits. They will quite happily congregate around it.

If you're not sure what age they are, check out the Breeding page on my site, there is a picture diary of Hypancistrus zebra developement. http://www.qems.biz/zebra.htm

Good luck and congradulations again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rob

[kigoma]

The fry are already rather large and appear to have little or no yolk sac left. There are a total of only four of them. To answer your question on how long, I have had mine since theywere two inches and have kept them for over two years now. I was getting ready to sell them and move on to something more prolific, but did not have the time to deal with that and pretty much left them alone. Stopped doing regular water changes and fed them infrequently. I had added the other plecos into the tank because I had noweher to keep them not being concerned about any zebra fry, as it was a species only tank for almost the entire two and a half years I owned the fish.

Now, I am the proud father of 4 little zebra plecos that I have moved to the plasitc box breeding trap. Hopefully I will not kill these fragile little creatures. I have placed inside it a small chunk of pellet that I feed the adults in the hopes that they will start to gnaw on it.

[azn_phil]

WOW CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! Being in Canada you must be very proud as there are little to none zebra breeders here...I'm from Toronto Ontario and even had thoughts about visiting you up in winnepeg!!! haha....congratulations none the less......wow must be so exciting! I really am!

[metallhd]

Congratulations likewise, I'm sure the 'Peg hasn't seen anything that fancy since the last grey cup win bwahaha sorry I couldn't resist . . . good show! Make sure to get a good price if that's your aim, you've almost certainly cornered the market!

[kigoma]

I am not sure that 4 fry counts as cornering the market, but I certainly hope that things continue to happen in my Zebra tank. I have heard that zebras will only breed a couple of times and then stop. Can anyone lend any weight to these rumors? I would appreciate any thoughts on the subject from people that have heard anything about this.

Thanks,

Rob

[Dale90g]

Can't offer any other help, just want to say congrats!!

[doctorzeb]

Hi Kigoma

I have heard that zebras will only breed a couple of times and then stop

As far as I'm aware, the zebra's can normally spawn (in the wild) 2 times in a season. This will continue for the adult life of the fish. It is possible to induce breeding in captivity more than twice by sumulating the rainy season, seval time over, but personally I don't think this is very good for the fish.

Keep your fingures crossed, and you might find a few more in a few weeks!!! godd luck

rob

[fish2992]

first thing you need to do is ship one or two to me. that way they will all make it through the night. lol just kiddin. beautiful fish though and congrats. you have a very jellous comrad. congrats