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Hi all,

first hello, I'm just arrived here and glad I found you guys. Lots of plecos around here.

My question is about the hypancistrus zebra L046.

I found a lot about breeding them on the net, but one thing I didn't read. I know the males are dominant. Regarding this is it better to have several small tanks with several couples. Or would you advice to go for a large tank with a community.
How many cm2 per male would you need to have no problems if you choose the community options.
And what would you hold males/females in a 1/1 ratio or rather 1/3 or even a male or 2 with lots of females.

Perrush
* why are those zebra's so darn expensive ??? *

I have just completed three new tanks, which I will split my group of Zebras into pairs.
You are correct about the dominance and the reason for my splitting them was exactly this.
I believe that the dominant male is preventing the other males from taking females, my dominant male is presently breeding with two females and I feel that the other males will not feel secure enough to take a breeding cave of their own. My dominant male is exceptionally big though, and this would obviously be quite intimidating to any others.
Hope you are successful.
Cheers Marc

Hi guys,

I've got two additional questions :

1) Seems L046 isn't that hard to breed if I read the reports.
1a) So why is it still that expensive ? I think many would like to have one in their community tank if the price was lowered a bit, but it still stays that high.
1b) Are these little creatures sellable to the public ?

2) I don't have any experience raising fry or breeding any fish (except some guppys, which I don't count as 'breeding' ). So I guess I need a less expensive substitute for the zebra's to learn first (don't want to learn it the hardway -> $$$$ ). Preferrable they should come from the same region, have the same habits, are the same size, eat the same food, blablabla BUT are cheaper than zebra's.
Any idea's ?? Or do I just go for 5 or 6 zebra's right away and hope for the best.

Perrush

Ancistrus teminckii/dolichopterus/whatever it's called... You know... regular ancistrus!

Maryboy: What size are the new tanks you mentioned?

hi König Löwe
The tanks that Ive set up are 30x12x12, seven inches of which I have segregated for the development of the fry. I have set up a couple of slate caves in each and will move the fish over this week sometime. I decided to use an undergravel system with a sand substrate and a 900lph powerhead, this means that the segregated area for the fry still gets adequate filtering but doesn't have the strong current to wash away the food.
Cheers Marc

Wont the sand get into the undergravel and/or clog it?I was under the impression that you couldnt use sand with undergravels.

Hi,

perrush wrote: 1) Seems L046 isn't that hard to breed if I read the reports.
1a) So why is it still that expensive ? I think many would like to have one in their community tank if the price was lowered a bit, but it still stays that high.

Because the number of the offspring is quite small, rarely more than 10 young zebras in one spawn. And furthermore the fishes grow up very slowly.
Also the Hypancistrus zebra is a "must have"-fish, maybe the importers and wholesalers keep up the prices.
At least there is a rumour, that the Hypancistrus zebra has become rare in the Rio Xingu compared to former times. It seems, that the imported animals today are smaller than the fishes imported years ago.
But i doubt, that there´s any truth in this rumor.
Seeming theer will be built a barrage in Rio Xingu in near future (as per Ingo Seidel), unfortunately this could be a real danger for the fishes of that river.

1b) Are these little creatures sellable to the public ?

Of course

So I guess I need a less expensive substitute for the zebra's to learn first (don't want to learn it the hardway -> $$$$ ). Preferrable they should come from the same region, have the same habits, are the same size, eat the same food, blablabla BUT are cheaper than zebra's.
Any idea's ?? Or do I just go for 5 or 6 zebra's right away and hope for the best.

I also would suggest the common Ancistrus cf.dolichopterus, but raising young zebra plecos ist not as difficult as many other loricariids. If there are no enemies for the fry in the tank, you even can leave them with there parents.