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I have at the advice of my lfs, added a slice of cucumber in the tank with my zebra's and the corys etc, it has been held down to the slate with an elastic band, but they are yet to touch it.

I fed the fish their 2 cubes of frozen food, and that was all gone in a few minutes, before i went to bed, i added the cucumber in the tankf or the zebra's as everything else was quite still.

my zebra's did not touch the cucumber all night, and i left in the tank this morning to see if they wanted it today?

do you think they will ever eat veggies as they were captive bred to start with, and at the lfs they were raised on hikari algea wafers, Ive always just fed them frozen krill, bloodworm and daphnia which they have loved, but i cant get them to eat veggies?

My zebras will eat almost anything but they won't touch cucumber, not sure why??? They do like courgette, the skin round the outside goes first.

I ran out of frozen food last week and gave them some Hikari tropical for discus, they can't get enough of it now.

Hi

try some popped peas - all my plecs love them, even my old grumpy hypancistrus zebra male.

-Klaus

Hi!

The only piece of green I have ever tried to give them was zuccini and carots... big failure , not even touch it!
still they are going crazy for Spirulina tablets!!! The one with 20% of it
Cheers
Yann

Thats great that you were able to get captive bred zebras I've never tried feeding mine cucumber, but I have ocassionally used algae tablets which they eat, but I don't think they really enjoy them.

Hi Clay!

You should try feeding them tablets with high concentration level of Spirulina , I have try many brand and type but my Loricariidae wil go crazy for the 20% Spirulina tabs from Sera!

Cheers
Yann

I saw a poster on a tank housing a group of H. zebra in one of the UK's largest fish shop groups. The poster read 'Zebra Pleco's exelent algae eaters £60 each'

You don't say where you are located?

Now if you concider that these fishes are collected from depths of 9 metres or more. they live amongst the crevises of volcanic rocks and from the habitay pictures I have seen, the water is not what you might call clear. I for one don't know of many plants if any at all that would grow in those conditions and I doubt very much if you would find any algae growing more than a few inches below the surface.

So to get back to you original question NO zebra's don't eat vegetation naturally, they are carnivore/carrion so meaty foods such as fish, crustation, muscle are all good fare for Zebra's.

yannfulliquet wrote:Hi Clay!

You should try feeding them tablets with high concentration level of Spirulina , I have try many brand and type but my Loricariidae wil go crazy for the 20% Spirulina tabs from Sera!

Cheers
Yann

I'll have to try that the next time I'm looking for fish food. In general, their diet consists of bloodworms, shrimp pellets, brine shrimp, and bottom feeder tablets (not algae tablets). I may also give mussels another shot

Hi!

I totally agree with Ian, still we can think that they can come across some plant detritus once in a while.
Stomach content of Hypancistrus inspector have been heading toward this point!

Cheers
yann

Coryman (Ian), I am based in Camberley, surrey.

I would be interested to know what fish store had that poster up? I wonder what size they would be. I have said it in a earlier post, that I sometime travel up to 3 hours to look for good priced and healthy fish.

Back to my zebra's and their greens - When I returned yesterday the cucumber was untouched. I fed them some Cyclops, but there were not at all interested, it got scoffed away but the Cory's and the filters did the rest.

I left two king British plec pellets in there that are made up of veggie extract, but mainly muscle and crustacean which were gone by the time I got up this morning, I know theres been some activity as they are all in different caves this morning to where I left them last night.

I don't think I'm going to bother trying the vegetable route any further as they are just not interested, and its not like they are un-healthy without it.

Thanks All.

Hi All,
To reply to Zebra_pl*co food comments, I also use the KingBritish pellets but found that the pleco tabs dissolve in the water for too fast and can make quite a mess, however the KB Catfish pellets are excellent, fast sinking and small enough in size that the small zebras can focus on one pellet to themselves, they dont break up and are quite heavy so they stay on the substrate even with a fast flow.
I do aggree with the overall consensus that we shouldn't really be forcing our Zebras to eat greens, as mentioned they very rarely see these in the wild and I dont think that not having them will be detrimental to their health. I have tried the occassional piece of cucumber and courgette and the majority of my fish have ignored it completely.
I often wedge a piece of beef heart about the size of a thumb nail with some stones and the fish love it, but I do try to keep their diet as varied as possible.
Cheers Marc

I've heard of feeding beef heart, what is this and where can i get it?
I am presuming its not just small chunks of cows heart that I could easily get from the butchers?

Well you just might be onto something there! No your absolutley right it is cow heart that you will easily get from the butchers.

I am too feeding my plecos with KING BRITISH pellets and they're good I must say! I do feed them beefheart occasionally but not very often as they cloud and dirtied the water very fast!

Coryman wrote:I doubt very much if you would find any algae growing more than a few inches below the surface.

Ian,

Agree with all your as always very good advice. The statement quoted above is, however, false. In clear water, algae can be found at depths of well over 10 meters! The algal species varies with depth. Green algae are the first to disappear. Brown algae can be found at still greater depths.

(Of course, this is not to say that zebras eat algae. They don't!)

Dinyar

You could try feeding frozen discus food as this contains beef heart, shrimp, and bloodworm. Make sure it?s eaten though as the beef heart can pollute your water quicker than other foods.

Dinyar

I agree in clear water algae will be present in various forms but from the pictures I have seen of the zebra's environment the waters look far from clear.

Ian

I wonder if theres any plant life in 9 meters depth and if there was if the zebras would feed on it...why feed a carnivore plant food anyway if it doesnt touch it?

I think at 9 metres depth the only "plants" that can survive are those microscopic algaes...

Hi!

So just to let you know, that they start collecting Hypancistrus zebra at a depth of 9 meters and can go up to 35 meters.
I have also seen underwater shot from the Rio Xingu and sure do not look that clear...
Cheers
Yann

that is one deep river !! cant see there being that much current down their in the real world?

i take it then, that they would come to higher ground for spawing, hence why it has been possible in captivivty with added man made current.

My zebras love eating cucumber,lettuce and carrots