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I'm getting disparate for some help with my dwindling Zebra colony. I have a 2.75 inch female that thinks shes a male. She has now killed or seriously wounded 3 males. One was found dead, jammed in the rear of a cave and badly chewed up. A second was found the same way, but I was able to remove him before she finished him off and he's doing very well in my L333 tank. All recovered and growing. Tonight during a water change one seemed to be missing. Found him in a cave the female seemed to be guarding. I had to pull apart the cave to remove him. Stiff and bloody, I thought he was dead. But he moved a fin, so I returned him to his tank and moved the female to the L333 tank.

I know this sounds like I have the sexes backwards. But my own observations and the replies here to earlier post all say the killer is a ripe female and the victims male.

Can anyone shed some light on what's going on here?

Here are the same pics I posted earlier.

The aggressive female:



The female on top attacking the male I saved:



The second male she killed:



The female with the male she attacked tonight. Taken a month or two ago when trying to figure out the sexes. Female is the larger, which may be the problem:



I had the two in a ten gallon with six caves and rock overhangs. Penguin 125 filter with a sponge and a wooden airstone. So lots of hiding places and O2.

Don

How sure are you that she really is a she?

This sounds weird....

I could only ask the same. Is he really a she?
I must say that I have only little experience myself but most of the articles I've read says that whatching their behaviour is the best way to tell the sex of plecos.

BTW -I feel very sorry for your losses.

Don,
I feel for you. This must be driving you nuts.

I am going to go out on a limb here, because I believe I have seen this before, but not with zebras...not that the species matters much.

I am going to guess you have sub-adult males only with this one female (and no other females). It sounds to me like your female has just entered maturity and is desperately seeking a male to spawn with. Typically, the skin scraping would trigger the male, but your males are too young and she has no other choice but to continue to try and stimulate the males she does trap.

If you can beg a loaner, find an adult male for her. If not, get them all back together again, but remove the caves for a while. The males must be able to escape her.

My 2 cents...spent.

Kevin Korotev
Milwaukee

I would have to agree with kkorotev on this one

sharko wrote:I would have to agree with kkorotev on this one

Yeah, me too. I'm either going to get a larger mature male or just wait it out. Thanks for the replies.

Don

Me too.

Looking at the fotos - I can hardly recognize a male. They must be very young - or even females too.

Regards
Line

Shes fighting to get into the rear of the cave as mine do also to spawn with the male, it seems to me your caves are too small try a larger cave and see how that goes