L46 Zebra Pleco's

Hi all

Thanks for all the nice comments. Now comes the next step...keeping him alive. My water is still to hard but I will gradually over a extended period of time lower the hardness level of the water through peat filtration. I will prefilter my water through peat in advance for water changes. Don't want to lower it to fast as my Zebra will sure die if I do. I also have the L333's in with him. They are small but there is lots of hidding places and so far so good. The 5 Neon Tetra's are also coping well with the temp and current. I am switching of the filters when I feed otherwise my filters just gobble up all the food within seconds.

 

That is a very very beautiful fish.

 

Very nice, good thing your pocket money is due on week ends :blink1:

Which digital tester to you use bud and are you happy with it ?

 

Hi @Charles
they are awesome. Beautifull fish you got there

 

Good luck dude I am waiting for our local guys to have luck with these guys

 

Interesting to see your ph gh kh are very similar to my tap water.
I hope the neons survive that tank.

 

I don't the neons are the concerns here lol

 

@Lizid. Point taken.
Just my opinion on the dither fish choice.
Is a fish any less of a life if the monetary value is less?
(A Rhetorical question)

 

beautiful fish.. glad all went well with the transport from jhb... will follow

 

Hi all

Yes, thanks @Ammar, all went well. Prof said you he did not give you the marine mix, you did'nt order it, but no sweat.

@Khalid, thanks for the concern wrt the Neon Tetra's, they are still doing fine with current and temp thus far. If I become aware that they are struggling, I will remove them. What will your choice be for dither fish in this type of environment? How are those Super Red's comming along. remember I want some please!!!!

@Trevor Pleco, pH meter is the SAGA Water proof one, the TDS one I can't remember now but its light blue body with navy blue cap. Will check the name and post. I will take pics of both and post. Then everybody can see.

My new L46 is still doing fine, so are the two L333's and 3 golden BN fry and the 3 golden apple snails...lol. The L46 moves around in jerky moves so are the L333's. So that's a good sign. I have'nt seen them eat yet, I do feed at night ofcourse but check on them 2 hours after feeding time, I switch of the filters when I feed and the back on after 2 hours. What is then not eaten gets eaten by the filters. Most of the food is gone after 2 hour period but some are left. I am going to remove the apple snails just to be sure it's the pleco's eating it and not the snails.

 

raver use airline tubing or gravel vac too suck up uneaten food

 

Hi @Ryno

I will be gravel vacuming every 3rd day in any case. This will be part of my 20% wc as well. But yes I will remove any uneaten food manually if the filters did not pick it up, which it does very effectively may I add at almost 3000l/h filtration. Turn around is at 29.75 x/hrs.

 

you dont want food in the filters. its a way for amonia and nitrates to pick up very quickly.

 

I am aware of this, all my filters gets cleaned in rotation. The mechanical sponge filters more frequently and biofiltration with Matrix, Purigen and De-Nitrate monthly. I do 20-30% WC every 3rd day along with gravel vac's on certain tanks. Ammonia never had problems with, nitrates on the other hand I struggle to keep below 25mg/l on certain tanks, then again those are heavily stocked and planted and gets ferts etc. So that's normal on those tanks. L46 tank is kept at 10mg/l and trying to get it even lower. My NO3 out the tap is 10mg/l. Thats why I'm looking into Orca's Nitra-Guard. It's on test on my 3ft Betta tank and my heavily stocked 4ft of plants and fish, which includes a lot of pleco's. The 4ft's NO3 is stable at 25mg/l. The Betta 3ft is 50+mg/l and here is where the real test will come wrt the Nitra-Guard bio cubes. I started another thread on this bio cubes and will post in due time my experience with it.

 

Personally i prefer not to use any dither fish in my pleco tanks cause
1. they usually carry nasty diseases
2. they compete for food
3. they add to the bio load
4. they kill/eat pleco fry
5. they can easily get sucked up my the filters

On the other hand i am also tired of visitors looking at my tanks and saying stupid things like "nice assortment of coconuts shells"
or "where's the fish ?"
From experience the more plecs you keep in a tank the less shy they become.

 

@Khalid, I feel you on this one. Also my experience with the more pleco's the less shy they become. Suppose the greater numbers makes them feel more safe and more secure. My L201's were very shy in the begining but now I see them all the time and when it's feeding time they are first in line. Some of my pleco's come's up and eat out of my hand, very cool and my kids love this even though I don't allow them to put their hands in my tanks.

 

@Charles, you mentioned hectic filtration on your tank, is this a temporary thing to improve water quality? will you be keeping it that way once you have fry? im assuming these will get sucked up?..

 

Awesome fish Charles. I can imagine how excited you are.

I know you've done a lot of research on these guys but isn't it a huge risk to house them with neons? In my experience, neons are finicky and prone to disease which you obviously don't want in this tank.

Anyway...good luck and enjoy and let us know when you have fry :bigsmile:

 

I will adapt the filtration uptake once I get to that stage, many ways to "kill a cat".

 

@Hawk. Keeping L46 alone is a risk...lol. Any fish in this tank with them is a risk. But point taken.