# Baby Zebras



## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

Excuse the poor quality of the shots. Using an i phone through a 8 yr old acrylic tank 

This one is hard to spot but look to the left of the clam shell










Pebble to the right of this baby is maximum one inch, maybe a little smaller


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

:O!!! did you manage to breed them?


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

well done!


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ok, now I know why you think H. zebra are commonplace and easy to get. They are commonplace at your house.


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Ok, now I know why you think H. zebra are commonplace and easy to get. They are commonplace at your house.


Gary, I thought he was blowing smoke until I saw it myself one day!!! It is THE CUTEST little thing EVER. It's a perfect mini replica of an adult


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Great job Joseph! I gotta do a bit of reading to see how I can get my group of six to breed. I never bought them with any intention of breeding them but it would be cool to see.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

tony1928 said:


> Great job Joseph! I gotta do a bit of reading to see how I can get my group of six to breed. I never bought them with any intention of breeding them but it would be cool to see.


Are they full adults? They are very slow growers and I understand most people say they need to be 2-3 years old before they start to be interested.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

It would be awesome if we could breed them locally, then we can take less from the wild. This is really exciting!

The people that I know that are trying to breed them have troubles getting them past 1". Good luck!


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Joseph has been breeding them for a while. And the kick is, he doesn't even do much to breed them. I think most are trying too hard...


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I would say half of them are pretty close to full size. ie. about 3" if not a bit more. They seem to all get along fine and just hang out and eat.



2wheelsx2 said:


> Are they full adults? They are very slow growers and I understand most people say they need to be 2-3 years old before they start to be interested.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

charles said:


> I think most are trying too hard...


It's difficult not to think about return on investment at the prices these things command.


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Are they full adults? They are very slow growers and I understand most people say they need to be 2-3 years old before they start to be interested.


I think the groups that Charles has gotten in starting breeding for myself and a few other people almost right away. They are super slow growers though


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

charles said:


> Joseph has been breeding them for a while. And the kick is, he doesn't even do much to breed them. I think most are trying too hard...


Well, there is the age old formula of regular water changes and the Magic Charles food, then you told me the secret of powerheads at varying times and in different directions.


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

cool that you got these breeding, how many of the fry are surviving in the tank?


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice Joseph!

I am wondering, what do you feed these infants and what sort of parameters do they require? All my tanks have softer water with a ph of 6-6.5


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> cool that you got these breeding, how many of the fry are surviving in the tank?


Not too many unfortunately, at least not many that I can see. The tank is a hex 72 gallon set up with a lot of pleco caves so I never know what's happening in the caves until the babies come out like these ones did


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

still pretty cool  hopefully you can find a newly hatched batch in the future and put em in a breeding net


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## josephl (Apr 21, 2010)

tang daddy said:


> Very nice Joseph!
> 
> I am wondering, what do you feed these infants and what sort of parameters do they require? All my tanks have softer water with a ph of 6-6.5


I'm lucky in that I have a tank that for whatever reason is at a ph of 5. Water comes out of the tap at 7 but for whatever reason, the ph in the tank drops to 5 and stays there, which the fish seem to love.

As for food, I don't feed anything specific but all the fish in the tank get frozen Hikari Mysis shimp, frozen Hikari blood worms and live black worms, plus the plecos in the tank go through 4 Indian Almond leaves a week so I'm assuming that that's what they are eating


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

josephl said:


> As for food, I don't feed anything specific but all the fish in the tank get frozen Hikari Mysis shimp, frozen Hikari blood worms and live black worms, plus the plecos in the tank go through 4 Indian Almond leaves a week so I'm assuming that that's what they are eating


I'm doing the lbw, Hikari bloodworms and just tried your almond leaves and I think the discus and plecos really like it. Are your leaves from Charles/Pat? Also where do you get the Mysis shrimp, J&L? I want to try your magic formula for my L134's.


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm not proud of it, but it was the closest I've ever come to stealing a fish from someone's tank :bigsmile:


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

Mferko said:


> still pretty cool  hopefully you can find a newly hatched batch in the future and put em in a breeding net


That sounds almost like work. Joe doesn't work on his tanks - he pretty much leaves it all up to his fish to sort out


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## budahrox (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow!!
Whatever you're doing just keep doin' it!!
That's awesome!!
Congratz!!
Cheers!!


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

josephl said:


> Excuse the poor quality of the shots. Using an i phone through a 8 yr old acrylic tank
> 
> This one is hard to spot but look to the left of the clam shell
> 
> ...


such a tease with the blurry pics 
good job on the batch of zebras!
keep them coming! the demand is there...the supply....


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## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

This is pretty exciting. Congrats, hat off and all that. 

More (and better ) pics?


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