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My L-46 zebras have not bred for 6 months.
I have a group of 4M & 4F. I was getting regulars spawns but no breeding activity for a long time. Are these possibly seasonal breeders? 1All are healthy and eating well.

Thanks for any info.

When I had a similar issue I discussed it with two internationally renown pleco breeders at CatCon 2016. They asked what was I doing differently now v.s. what I was doing when they were spawning like crazy. In my case the answer was simple when I thought about it. Having had such great success the first few years I began to think there was nothing to it.

So I got lazy and began feeding more commercial foods instead of mostly feeding an assortment of Hikari frozen (bloods, brine, mysis, daphnia). I needed to get off my butt and make the effort to feed better. A part of this was I began using the Repashy foods, especially the Spawn & Grow. This latter food is what worked for me to get the L173 Hypans going. Just as an FYI- I have 18-20 tanks.

When I feed commercial foods i can feed them all in 5 minutes. When I feed frozen it us about 20-25 minutes But when feeding Repashy it takes me 30-40 minutes because I cut it into small portions and place pieces all around the tank. What I know is the extra time feeding frozen and Repashy are work it in terms of spawns. Despite this above, I will tell you that the best foods for encouraging Hypans to spawn are live. if you are inclined, look into live black worms. They are somewhat messy and smelly and I drew the line at frozen for myself. But I did so knowing that live was the absolute best option.

For the most part I have found that fish want to spawn. It is our job not to do things that would prevent them doing so. Basically, this boils down to three things as far as I am concerned:

1. Proper environment in terms of water parameters.
2. Proper environment in terms of hardscape in a tank. (This includes tank size.)
3. Proper diet.

More often than not, nothing more is required. If this is not sufficient, you many need to consider doing a full blown dry/rainy season on the tank. This will require a couple of months. Before trying this you can try skipping a water change and waiting for a storm to roll in and then doing a big water change. Good food is a must here.

In the end, there is no guarantee that any particular method will work across the board.