L-46 Zebra Plecos

[TwoTankAmin]

Pricing depends upon who you are buying from and exactly what you are buying. Like any fish the smaller ones are cheaper and the pirce goes up with size with proven breeders commanding the most.

They are not particularly difficult to breed once they are big/old enough, and therein lies the rub. For the best results one should have fish in the 3-4 year old range for breeding. Fortunately they are a long lived fish and once they start spawing they will continue to do so for many many years. Of course the hardest part is getting the first spawn. bear uin mind they are seasonal spawners and can a bit of effort to get going.

There are at least two good sites for zebra info: http://www.zebrapleco.com/forum/ and http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...species_id=168 (note there are 149 registered keepers many of who have spawned them).

[Zippo]

Thanks T, i was waiting for you to come outa da woodwork and answer any Q's.

[Picklefish]

While my zebras haven't spawned, only 2.5yrs old. I do have a pr of L333 Hypancistrus.
They threw over 80 fry the summer of '07. Of course with my luck they haven't done too much of anything since I moved them into their new home in the fishroom.

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

Originally Posted by AlishanAS

They are not banned here.

At least I hope not as there will be an adult wild L046 at the auction.

As a guest or as part of the rare pleco raffle ?

[fischfan13]

Originally Posted by AMBUSHPREDATOR

As a guest or as part of the rare pleco raffle ?

The post you quoted was from last years auction.

[vanillarum]

There is a guy here in the states selling WC zebras for $100 each, minimum of 5, I believe. He is waiting on his next shipment now. He is quite trustworthy and has been doing this for a while. Zebras are banned from export from Brazil, which is the only place in the world they live in the wild. Many fish suppliers are now bringing them out thru other countries, hence the supply. There are, however, very few coming here, as the Japanese are paying 5x what we are for them. If you are interested, PM me and I will give you his info. Good luck.

[AMBUSHPREDATOR]

When my wife stares over my shoulder and sees pleco's and catfish all she ever says is why would anyone want them they're ugly . As I was scanning this thread she goes wow that's nice why don't you get one of those. Woman can just smell expensive stuff whether it's shoes cars or fish it seems. Cry mao.

[fishboy]

i used to c these things years ago going for 100-125$.. they shot up into the 200s outta nowhere.. i dont think the prices are coming down,,i think there going up..

[Longstocking]

While this is an old post... no harm in talking about these...

Right now I believe they are 250???

They were up to 400-500 at one point. Still at the catfish auction I saw them go for around 300 I think. Lower than they were selling on AB.

Tom's tangs has trios for sale that are breeders....

[TwoTankAmin]

When the prices shot up the result was the illegal collection and smuggling out of Brazil began on a large scale. The prices rapidly came down for wc fish of all sizes. The problem was that the fish which made it here were not in the best of shape. Many who imported them were not experienced in their proper care and acclimation and the result was there were a lot of dead zebras both in importers' tanks and in the tanks of buyers. Not all of the sellers had these problems and there are a few decent ones. As vanillarum posted, he can connect you with one.

I am still breeding them and actually sell them at a smaller size and for more money than one can find wild caughts for and I still have a waiting list.

I am not so sure when there will be another wave if imports as the fish is a seasonal one and it lives deep in fast flowing waters which means they are almost impossible to collect during the rainy season. Rainy season for zebras runs from about December to May so I would be surprised to see loads of zebras arriving for a few months unless they have been secreted someplace for the past few months.

On another note, the Brazilian government looks to be proceeding with the damn on the Xingu which will more than likely result in zebras becoming extinct in the wild. The extinctions will not be limited to just zebras either. Many of the more exotic plecos, esp hypancistrus, come from the Xingu as well as many more common ones.