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For how long can a zebra pleco keep breeding?
I mean how old are they, when the stop being sexual active?
And how long is the estimated lifespan?
I read about 10-15 years old, but somehow i think they can get older.
What is the oldest zebra you have heard of or have?

Regards Kristoffer

A local LFS owner I know said he imported a group in 1993. He received them as adults, so that would make them 24 at least. Pretty cool I think.

I am aware of a breeder with a male at 21 years which is still spawning. My oldest has to be about 12 to 13 years old now.

It matches more with what I was thinking.
I see Hypancistrus Zebra as an investment, compared with guppies who only live for a few years.
So money is well spent, when the fish can live for two decades, and still be breeding.

I ask because I'll be buying 4 more adult zebra's too my group on Sunday.
I have bred them before, but needed to sell the group, because I moved to another city.

Yes Kris, fish are an "investment" hope that argument wins with your significant other
-Shane

Shane wrote:Yes Kris, fish are an "investment" hope that argument wins with your significant other
-Shane

Shane, Where's the "Like" button?... I want to press the "like" button for your post over and over again. I think you've struck on a whole new way to justify the hobby in these economically tough times.

You misunderstand me, maybe my not so good english is the reason.

When I write investment may perhaps think that I compare them with shares, I do not.
What I wanted to write was that when they live as long as they do, they are worth spending money on, even if they cost 100 times more than a guppi.

Kris, I understood what you meant. I think it was my joke that did not translate well.

My own feeling is that wild caught fishes have no inherent monetary value. I can walk to the creek in my backyard and catch all the fish I want for free. If I pay for a fish I am really just paying for someone else to catch a fish in their local creek and ship it to me to save me the effort of traveling to their creek and catching it myself.

-Shane

I would like to collect my own fish too, but when you live i Denmark, you can only find not so exciting fish, they are all cold water fish and really would suffer duing the summer, if kept in an aquarium.
We have some pikes, perch, trout and some eels, most of them grow quite large.

Some day i most go to the Amazone and bring some fish home.

One more question:

Is it best to split my groups up in 2x1.2 and separate them, or keep them all in the same aquarium?

With a group that's too few in numbers to split up; keep them together. 5 should be the minimum number per tank.

Okay thank you, then i keep them together.

Barbie wrote:I think the pair of H. zebra that spawned dozens of times in a 20 gallon long would be shocked to know that it wouldn't work that way ;). There are so many ways to be successful with these fish. The real problem is that there are just so many more ways to NOT be successful. If you notice excessive squabbling, split them up. If the tank space is smaller and you're worried about them surviving a potential issue, split them up. If your tank is large enough, you should have more success with them as a group,but even that is not always a sure thing.

Barbie

That's interesting; because when I posed this question - splitting up colonies to give other fish a chance of breeding - I was told it that keeping them in colonies was better. Which was odd, since Cichlid breeders commonly keep their breeding fish in pairs.

Barbie wrote:There is no single hard one way to do things with fish. I've had a lot of success doing things the wrong way. Usually because the fish are still in quarantine and spawn before I set them up, or because I didn't have the tank space, or whatever. It just makes me laugh that people have read things MUST be a certain way. There are better ways, and reasons why some things work better than others, but IME, there are very few "ONLY" ways.

Barbie

True, I think their argument for keeping them in colonies was that it was better to allow the alpha male to spawn with multiple females and allow the females to choose who to mate with - rather than split them up into pairs.

Just my 2 cents on the issue. I have always used groups or colonies. For me this means at least 7 fish and as many as about 15. I do this for a few reasons.

1. I feel it more appropriately resembles nature than pairs.
2. I believe one does not want females spawning at a young age as it will conflict with growth. Both males and females in groups have pecking orders. The best females get to spawn with the bast males. Smaller/younger females do not get much chance to spawn so their energy goes more towards growing than reproducing. And the bigger a female might be, the more eggs she can create/hold. As fish keepers we tend to want reproduction ASAP and this can cause us to put younger females into a pair to spawn.
3. It should foster greater genetic diversity. This assumes you have genetically diverse stock.
4. Fry seem to grow faster when left in the group tank.
5. Deaths rarely stop the whole process.
6. Often one spawning sets off another. Some believe this may be due to hormones in the water.

The above are all reasons why I prefer groups. It ignores some of the down sides of groups as well as any of the advantages of using pairs. And as with most things fishy, it is a matter of personal preference. We tend to do what works for us.

TwoTankAmin wrote:Just my 2 cents on the issue. I have always used groups or colonies. For me this means at least 7 fish and as many as about 15. I do this for a few reasons.

3. It should foster greater genetic diversity. This assumes you have genetically diverse stock.

In my experience this could go either way depending on the fish. With a few species (L199, L201, L340) I have found this to be true, multiple males, multiple clutches. But in others I have found that all guarding is done the dominate male (L260, L134, L046) which narrows diversity vs breeding in pairs. Currently I have a colony of 15 queens with 5 good healthy males, but the dominate male will be sitting on several stages of fry simultaneously, and the others have never bred.

My response was based on two things. First, the question was specifically about zebras rather than plecos in general. Second, my own experiences. In a tank with about a dozen breeding wild zebras I once had 3 males on spawns all at once. One on eggs, one on wigglers and the third on almost free swimmers. Most of the time I only had two males spawning at about 30 day intervals but two week apart from each other. Thus I was getting a spawn every two weeks from different males. I can not state how many different females were involved but my bet is it was more than 2.

And regarding those 15 queens, how many different females were involved- I presume at least a different one for each clutch the male was on all at one time. That is still genetic diversity.

TwoTankAmin wrote: And regarding those 15 queens, how many different females were involved- I presume at least a different one for each clutch the male was on all at one time. That is still genetic diversity.

Somewhat, but all the offspring share the same father. If I was to split the group into five trios and have them all breed I would have five different batches of totally unrelated fish.

Nabobmob1 wrote:

TwoTankAmin wrote: And regarding those 15 queens, how many different females were involved- I presume at least a different one for each clutch the male was on all at one time. That is still genetic diversity.

Somewhat, but all the offspring share the same father. If I was to split the group into five trios and have them all breed I would have five different batches of totally unrelated fish.

Why not try that?

Raul-7 wrote: Why not try that?

What I'd give for 4 open tanks......