The Zebra Pleco Tank (L046)

A place to keep us informed of the goings on in your tanks. - Tank Logs.
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plankton
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Si4geckos wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:38 pm
plankton wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:57 am Can you not baffle the flow across the sand with stones and caves?
Would that not mean all the waste just gets stopped too?
Put the decor at an angle so it goes around. ;)
Si4geckos
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This is the current substrate in with the shrimp. Still wondering if I could get away with a fine layer of this.
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plankton
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If there's no sharp bits to cut the mouths it should be ok. :)
Do you know how many males/females you have yet, or is it still too early?
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plankton wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:01 am If there's no sharp bits to cut the mouths it should be ok. :)
Do you know how many males/females you have yet, or is it still too early?
It's not 100% smooth, but I wouldn't say massivly sharp either. Not sure what level of sharpness is acceptable. Coral sand I'd say was sharp, but this is just gravel? Not rounded.

Still too small to guess genders. I'm on a zebra plec facebook group and 95% of posts are "what sex are my zebras?" I've not seen a single post where people agree.
Completely conflicting answers on every one. I'm still no wiser sexing any plecs. Or even sterbai yet. Had them a few years, bred loads, but I can still only tell the difference between a few as I've seen which are males/ females when spaning. I have big fat males and smaller skinnier females, so they all look the same. Don't get me started on my L397 either....

Think zebras need to be 3/4 yrs old before you can tell genders and some of mine may not even be 1yr old yet. Just trying to give them the best set up so they'll do the best possible. I was going to clear out the shrimp tank ready for the move yesterday, but the RAMs have spawned again upstairs, so I'll wait until next week before I consider a any moving around.
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Roll the gravel between your fingers, that'll tell you how sharp it is. ;)
If it doesn't feel "rough" it should be ok for plec mouths.
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Bloody rams messing with your plans,are they the ones you got at the auction?
As for the zebras I'm more shocked your not on fry batch 3 with your magic water.
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piker wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 16:29 pm Bloody rams messing with your plans,are they the ones you got at the auction?
As for the zebras I'm more shocked your not on fry batch 3 with your magic water.
Ha! Tough times in my magic water.

The female ram is one of the ones from the auction, the male I had already. The other 2 golds from the auction are a pair now and have spawned as well at some point, but they scoffed the fry too. Sat next to the zebra/ ram tank now and there's a nice large bunch of wrigglers. Should be free swimming in a day or two.

Weirdly nothing has spawned and survived recently other than swordtaiils. I sold a load of shrimp, but not seen any babies for ages so wondered if they'd stopped breeding for some reason. I moved all the young swordtails out the shrimp tank and a week later the tank is peppered with tiny shrimp again. I thought the sterbai had given up breeding too. Not seen more than a couple of eggs for months. Tonight they were at it and laid about 30 eggs behind the filter. 10 mins later, all gone. Think the swarm of swordies is affecting the rest of the breeding potential.

Sadly I don't think even I can make the zebras breed that soon, even with my special water. Will probably be 2022 at the earliest. That's even if I have a mixture of sexes by then. My short term plan is to get another L397 if I can find the right sex and get practicing breeding those first. That's the ideal anyway. Still a struggle to find many around.

Going to wait a week or 2 for the shrimp to get a bit bigger and more robust (and easier to see/ catch) and see how the latest batch of rams goes then I think it'll be tank swopsies time!

Hows things going your end? I'll have a mooch around the forum, see if you've updated anything :)
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piker
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Fingers crossed you have a pair of zebras.
Will be interesting to see just how many shrimp you have now.I was shocked when I changed from the original tank to the newer one.Double the amount I thought.
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Si I know a guy who is selling L397's.

If you are on Facebook look up Pleco Breeders UK and look up Matt Boardman... I got my L066's from him and they've been great and I've got more fish from him arriving next week.
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Tycho wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 0:32 am Si I know a guy who is selling L397's.

If you are on Facebook look up Pleco Breeders UK and look up Matt Boardman... I got my L066's from him and they've been great and I've got more fish from him arriving next week.
On it. Messaged him and another chap. Thanks for the heads up.
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