The Zebra Pleco Tank (L046)

[BigBen]

I don't like to buy wild caught fish anyway. I was reading about the issues surrounding them in Brazil earlier. I might try Leopard Frogs or something similar to start with.

£6 is a steal!

[Si4geckos]

I've just had a read through this, Zebra's look awesome. I've been thinking about setting up my 3ft tank for them. Do you mind if I ask what the going rate for them is, both retail or breeders?

The cheapest ones around seem to be about £80-85 for about 3-4cm ones;£120-130 for 6cm ones. Adults can be £150-200+ depending on size, age and gender. Most groups of 10-12 adults seem to sell for about £150-180 per fish. Doesn't vary much between breeders and shops. They're just expensive fish. Just make sure you get legal tank bred ones, rather than wild-caught ones as they're endangered now and the illegal trade is sadly wiping them out. They're very slow growing and take about 3/4 years to reach maturity. Best getting at least 6 if you want to breed them and if you do, get the largest and smallest from whatever source you get them from. This gives you the best chance of males and females as they have different growth rates. Hope that helps (and you have deep pockets).

Wow, around 8 years ago I went to a fish Auction and bought 3 of these for £6 each, didnt keep the long as they hid most of the time, amazing the difference in price now, but not surprising as I havent seen them in years anywhere.

Wow, that does sound like a bargain now. It's due to import bans and slow growth (and small spawns) that the supply has dropped, but demand stayed high. Sadly you potentially got them cheaper as they were just all taken from the wild. Were they deffo L46s? I wasn't aware they were ever that cheap.

[Si4geckos]

I don't like to buy wild caught fish anyway. I was reading about the issues surrounding them in Brazil earlier. I might try Leopard Frogs or something similar to start with.

£6 is a steal!

There's another type of zebra plec where the stripes go vertically rather than horizontally. Columbina zebra plec maybe? Think they go for about £20ish each. Similar to the leopard frog, but more white than yellow.

[plankton]

Yes, zebras have been expensive for a long time now, certainly not less than £45 in 2000 when I first looked into them.......

[Si4geckos]

Things are moving along nicely.

The tank is in position. The old one is out and sold.

I scaped it how I wanted, got super happy with the wood as tree roots, then went to fill it up and all the wood has now been floating on the top for days! What a rookie error!

I'm the meantime I stripped down the fluval 405 that came with the tank. (the 306 is currently running on the big tank to keep media alive). The filter worked well and didn't leak, but I don't have faith in the other style locking mechanism for the aquas top valve. It's probably fine, but I'm used to the 06 series so tonight I picked this lot up.



X2 used 406s and an APS mini filter of some description.

One 406 works well, but needs a UK plug adapter and the other is only suitable for parts. Not sure which ones as most things are snapped and broken.

Not sure what, if any value the APS filter has. Only suitable for 150L tanks. I may run it on the shrimporium one day. Will test it at some point and see how things go.

All the plecs are doing well though in the meantime. Currently I have 10 plecs squashed into a 40 something litre tank. Doing water changes every other day, but they seem to be doing OK as they're only small. Can't wait to see how they look in the new tank. The light thag came with it is rubbish and gives a really atmospheric look. It's like an underwater cave with a shaft of light coming from the middle. I went with the black sand in the end and I couldn't be happier with the overall look (or I will be once the wood sinks!).

Off to scrub and service the new 406. Hoping to get it ready by the weekend and get the new fish moved ASAP.

As it's so dark I'm not sure how well my new fish will show up in there. The zebras are going to pop, so I've accidentally been speaking to some people about some adult zebras theyre selling. £150 a peice and 200miles away though. It's taking some thinking about!!

[Si4geckos]

And the Serangetti tank is up and running!

Serangetti you say? Thought it was a Zebra tank?

But what else lives in the Serangetti?

That's right, tigers!

The wood is still floating, so I'll save the tank photos for another day, but for now I've got 8 fish in it. My X4 zebras (L046) and X4 tiger panqolus (L397). Yes after months of searching for more, I finally ended up finding a home breeder and now have another x6 Panaques. I put the other 2 in the big tank with my adult. One of them looks female, but they're all 1.5-2.5ins I'd say. A lot of growing up to do. Exciting times though.

I moved all the fish out of Quarantine about 3hrs ago and all the plecs are exploring the new tank. The big zeb is going from cave to cave trying to choose his favourite.

Theres so much stripiness happening in here! Very excited. And just so I don't get hounded, here's some pictures of the move and exploring their new home. Is it possible to change the name of this thread?

[Tycho]

Lovely looking pleco's!

Keep an eye out for the 397's, they like to hide... or at least mine do... I had two in quarentine but they hid and I never saw them, think I saw them twice in about 6 weeks, when I came to move them I stripped the whole tank but only found one... no idea what happened as I never saw it so I don't know if it was ill or wasn't eating.

[Si4geckos]

I've had them a month now in Quarantine. The zebras and the 397s love hiding. Hence trying to build them a better setup that they may feel more Confident in. Signs look good so far. Seen the bug zebra more in the last 2 hrs than the last 5 months.

One of the 397s in the big tank just encroached into the big 397s house. He was not best pleased. Shoved the little one out 3 times. Most I've seen that one in months too. He looks amazing now!

Ill be keeping a close eye on all of them as much as I can. There's a lot of money if nothing else in that tank as well as very hard to find fish.

When the wood has sunk and its properly scaped I think it'll look awesome. I've a feeling when I hopefully get a pair or two of panaqs I might sell the rest, move the Panaques to the big tank and just have the new tank as zebra only and maybe baby panaque raising tank. If that day ever comes...

[Si4geckos]

Small VS the big one

[Wishafish]

Those are beautiful!