i have 4 zebra's in a 15 gallon breeding tank - they hav not started breeding yet, but i think this is as the tank is a bit too small, other problem with plec only tanks is they dont eat very well when on their own.

i have had to introduce a few pygmy cory's in there to help with the feeding, now ...

he is a mere baby, he is about 2" in length.

and it is definalty eating the silicone, as the cory's never touched it.

he has alot fo wood in there, but maybe it is too hard, i will try a softer variety, any advice on which to use?

I do not have much of a substrate, just 2-3mm of silver sand ...

my royal has decided that while im at work he is going to eat the silcone around the base of the tank !!!

he does have wood in there too which he spends all the time i watch him for eating.

but i dont want this to cause a leak and loose all the corys and brochis that live in the tank with him ...

I have always had silver sand, I wash it and filter out any bigger grains with stockings, I only apply a very fine layer though, but its not effected their barbs.

The sand needs changing in my large cory tank as its getting darker with the wasted food ( not that the brochis leave much ) and fish ...

that dotty panaque is very, very pretty although i do like our stripy one also, he is very small at the mo, and not in very good condition ( he was at a bad fish dealer, and they were all very poorly)

Once we has had the time to get better - how fast are these likely to grow, and yes we do know ...

Very fancy patterns!!

We purchased a royal panaque on saturday, a very small one, he must be just about 4cm long.

Ours has the stripey pattern on him, i have never seen a spotty one before this? unless of course thats how they are when very, very young then the strips are merged from the spots.

I have recently added four of these in with my zebra plecs' as they needed some help with the excess food.

these corydoras are very small, and i am worried about their diet, the man in the shop said they will eat anything.

I feed the plecs krill and bloodworm, with the odd catfish pellet for a ...

philtre wrote: zebra pl*co,
helps them grow well .. .the balanced diet or this particular food? (heheheh ... just wanted to be sure. I'm sure it's the balanced diet?)

Yes, it must be the balanced diet, because I can't see the fish growing just because of one brand of food. 'doh !!!

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.

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?

im not using a powerhead in my zebra tank ? but im sure there's plenty of current in there with my 2 filters ( internal and external )

i can see there's plenty because the thermometer keeps swaying gently in the currents.

Thanks for that, guys looking at the pictures they are L128's. I have been back to the store and the card states "emerald spotted plecostomus"
I have corrected them last night, I wonder if they changed the card by now.. these plecs are really nice !!

i have two of the same thing, we were sold them as "florescent orange cory's", we get them home, i spent two minutes online , and find they are just "aeneus cory's".
I was totally over charged at £18 for three ( one died unfortunatley ), but they do look nice, when they are very happy their clear ...

yes we use it for my gf's cory's and brochis's they love it !! well they would prefer bloodworm and daphnia , but they will eat it, we feed them it to make sure they are having a balanced diet, and it seems to help them grow well.

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 ...

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 got my tank, and it is all set up, i actually got a 70L tank in the end.

I have it running with an aqua pro 1 external filter for a 200L tank, a fluval 2 plus running with venturi device for added oxygen. I also have a rena air stone pump, with a pond air ball on it.

As for a substrate, i have ...

Polka,

very good guess going by my vague description. But its not them, very similar though. I will go get the actual L number next weekend, as they are magnificent fish !!

They actually look just like the golden nugget, but emerald green with lime spots in the same pattern, minus the higlights on ...

My girl friend brought 3 panda's at the weened these, guys are 5cm long, believe me they are big, almost as big as the brochis's !! wow...

and they still look just as cute !! especially now that they have taken on the role of caring for the smaller three that have been in her tank for a while.

I was under the impression you could only use "silver sand".

I see you are talking about how much to buy, when I brought mine the smallest bag was a 5kg job, and it costed £6 from my local garden centre.

I use two mug fulls in my smaller zebra tank 70L, and I use 4 mugs in my cry and brochis tank ...

I have had a busy weekend of fish spotting, after buying my zebra's a new tank, a new external filter and loads of other bits and bobs.

I was wondering around my local garden centre, who normally have no fishes better than guppies and tetra's but they had loads of plecs at fairly decent prices ...

sand, sand, sand and always sand, i wouldnt use anything else. - gravel will wear your catfishes barbs, and will hold all the fish poop, so when you clean it black stuff comes from there - sorry about my lack of technical words i.e fish poop, and black stuff, but im sure you get the idea.
I have no ...

I know that there is tons of sites that I can find this on and its probaly been mentioned 100 times before, but what is the reccomended ph for my zebra plecs, I have currently got it at 7.0ph as they share with a fair few other fish. Oh and my other fish are not too keen on the warmer waters that ...

Bad news about your tank, at least you found someone to mend it quickly.

I have to say "my lord" that is a lot of plecs, yes very good idea to cut down on the feedings.

my first fish when I started fish keeping were common plecs, man those guys can poop, they looked like they were just making ...

I was under the understanding that they need the wood to help with their digestive system.

As for wood rotting, i think it bepends on what sorts, i had some driftwood that i brought from a petsmart which rotted away a good un, but now i have proper hard wood from a specialist fish shop which has ...

out of interest, i feed my zebras frozen bloodworm and other frozen foods.

i switch off my power heads so that the food stays still long enough for them to eat, they always come straight out and eat it, maybe cos they know my filters take it away too quick - OR

I only feed them ONCE a day, always ...

Hi,

I have found a half decent site only for the L46 (zebra plec)

http://www.l46.de/l46/

only downside is that its all in german, but try altavista for translation.

All interesting stuff, but nothing i didnt know already.

much to the girl friend's distress ( she does the part water changes and i clean the filters and stuff )

I will be buying a separate tank for the zebra's - 120Litre and set it up in the spare room with just slate caves and a very fine sand substrate. Along with over kill on the filters, powerheads ...

Thanks for that one, lots of very helpful things in there, if a little old but very useful in my fishkeeping.
I will do a bit of reading up tonight over this info, as im at work right now.
Many Thanks.

i dont know about eating it, maybe they are sucking the water out of the wood, full of lovely healthy bacteria.

they must like it as they are practically glowing blue while sucking it?

what does a red/pink glow mean ? as mine do that close to feeding time.