I was wondering if I should really buy a zebra pleco, they are very expensive and I need outside opinions.
Is a zebra pleco worth it?
- Thread starter Ijustlikefish
- Start date
I would say no, unless you are really sure you want one, and are sure you can keep it alive.
I will vote no too. Unless, like TTA, you plan to breed a fish you won't see much, if ever. I fell in love with them many, many yeras ago, but after learning more about them I decided they were not for me. There is a brown & tan striped pleco that doesn't hide so much, but I'll need to think hard about which L # it is, 133?...planetcatfish.com is a good resource of all things pleco & catfish...
+1 for the no's. I don't see the point of spending several hundred dollars on a fish that you may not see much and which you may not be experienced enough to keep alive.
I'll level with you, my opinion is that if you have to ask if it's worth it then you've just answered your own question. And that answer is no. Like fishorama said, there are actually several small pleco species that have a brown base with light cream or tan stripes. I've kept clown plecos (a.k.a. L104 or Panaqolus maccus) that are similar at $8.00 or so, and Ancistrus sp. L100, which is black with a bunch of small white spots covering it. These were $15.00 or $20.00 back then. There are a lot of smaller species that are just as attractive with any number of combinations of stripes, spots and edged fins in a variety of colors. In my opinion, some are more attractive than zebras. Before you decide to go all out on a zebra, you could take a look at some of these and try one or two species to see if keeping plecos is for you to begin with.
WYite
Let me explain why I own zebras.
When I started in the hobby I bought one of the very few books I own on the subject of keeping fish. It was the Baensch Aquarium Atlas. I was filled with pictures of fish (600 species). I would go through the book looking at pictures and when I saw one that made me want to keep that fish, I would read about it. More often than not I could not keep a lot of things due to the wrong parameters or they needed a bigger tank than I had.
The result was i had a fish wish list and zebras were at the top of it. I saw all sorts of colorfukl fish but the black and white of the zebras caught my fancy. It took me while to finally finad and buy a couple. They were an adult pair and the price was a lot less than it would be thereafter. I did not know ant better and they went into a tank with other stripey plecos. The result was I lost one of then in under 9 months. What I can also say is when I opened the bag with thiose two zebras my heart skipped a beat. They are more beautiful in person. Sucg a white white and such a black black.....
I replaced the loss with 3 new juvenile zebras. This was all before they became illegal to export from Brazil. And then in 2006 I was presented with the chance to purchase a proven breeding group of 13 adults and a few offspring. I was nervous and would have to break into an IRA to pay for them, but I could not resist.
But there was another major consideration that helped me to make the decision to buy them. They were building the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu and I felt there was a good chance the result would cause zebras to go extinct in the wild. I felt if I could be successful with the fish I would be helping to keep the species alive in captivity. So my feeling was damn the Brazilian laws, get as many zebras out of the river and into tanks as was possible,
The vid from Leandro I posted in the OP's other thread deals with this. As it turns out there are still zebras in the Xingu. But between the change in parameters and the illegal trade in zebras, the populations are down. What Leandro and his students then did was to create a computer simulation to determine if the species will or will not survive in the wild over time. The conclusions are interesting.
I may get the numbers wrong here, but the gist of it is accurate. They felt that it would take about 10,000 fish in the river for the species to be able to survive. But they then ran computer simulations with smaller numbers. What they discovered is by removing just 100 fish the population would not be able so sustain itself and they would go extinct. This, along with their conclusions, convinced me that at this time no wild zebras should be removed from the river. What they said was that the survival of the species could come down to something as simple as not removing those 100 fish. It is more important than ever that people not buy wild caught zebras. I have done a 180 on this subject. But I should also add that I still believe it is a long shot that zebras will not become extinct in the wild. Thins seem too close to the tipping point.
The other point they made was that there were now a few excellent captive breeding operations producing zebras in quantity. One such is producing 1,000 zebras a week. I know they are breeding excellent fish as I worked with somebody to import over 300 zebras a year ago. The price was very cheap compared to the going market rates. i actually bought myself 25 new zebras at 2 inches as part of the deal. I am happy to report that began spawning about a month ago.
Any fish is only worth what you will pay for it. But i can say this about zebras. Whenever I see one out and about, it still makes me smile. And I have the caves arranged along the front of the tank so I can see many of mine regularly.When after lights out I spot two males on the front glass sparring, I get excited. And bear in mind that I have had zebras since about 2003. I will confess that I have a weakness of the black and white striped plecos. I also keep L236 and super white L236 and L173. I also have kept L450 and H. contradens (a B&W Spotted Hypancistrus).
So, if having a zebra or zebras tickles your fancy despite its tendency to hide, then go for it. But if you are not crazy about keeping them and you have no desire to have them spawn, then spend your money elsewhere. One of the great things about this hobby is there are so many options that there should be a few fish that one just has to have for whatever the reason.
Finally, zebras, once they are at 6 months or older are pretty hardy. The hard part can be having them spawn and if one does, getting the fry to make it to when they become more hardy. Zebra fry are tiny, they do not do well with nitrate and they can get into gunk on the bottom of a tank and this can kill them. So water changes and vacuuming are important if one gets babies.
When I started in the hobby I bought one of the very few books I own on the subject of keeping fish. It was the Baensch Aquarium Atlas. I was filled with pictures of fish (600 species). I would go through the book looking at pictures and when I saw one that made me want to keep that fish, I would read about it. More often than not I could not keep a lot of things due to the wrong parameters or they needed a bigger tank than I had.
The result was i had a fish wish list and zebras were at the top of it. I saw all sorts of colorfukl fish but the black and white of the zebras caught my fancy. It took me while to finally finad and buy a couple. They were an adult pair and the price was a lot less than it would be thereafter. I did not know ant better and they went into a tank with other stripey plecos. The result was I lost one of then in under 9 months. What I can also say is when I opened the bag with thiose two zebras my heart skipped a beat. They are more beautiful in person. Sucg a white white and such a black black.....
I replaced the loss with 3 new juvenile zebras. This was all before they became illegal to export from Brazil. And then in 2006 I was presented with the chance to purchase a proven breeding group of 13 adults and a few offspring. I was nervous and would have to break into an IRA to pay for them, but I could not resist.
But there was another major consideration that helped me to make the decision to buy them. They were building the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu and I felt there was a good chance the result would cause zebras to go extinct in the wild. I felt if I could be successful with the fish I would be helping to keep the species alive in captivity. So my feeling was damn the Brazilian laws, get as many zebras out of the river and into tanks as was possible,
The vid from Leandro I posted in the OP's other thread deals with this. As it turns out there are still zebras in the Xingu. But between the change in parameters and the illegal trade in zebras, the populations are down. What Leandro and his students then did was to create a computer simulation to determine if the species will or will not survive in the wild over time. The conclusions are interesting.
I may get the numbers wrong here, but the gist of it is accurate. They felt that it would take about 10,000 fish in the river for the species to be able to survive. But they then ran computer simulations with smaller numbers. What they discovered is by removing just 100 fish the population would not be able so sustain itself and they would go extinct. This, along with their conclusions, convinced me that at this time no wild zebras should be removed from the river. What they said was that the survival of the species could come down to something as simple as not removing those 100 fish. It is more important than ever that people not buy wild caught zebras. I have done a 180 on this subject. But I should also add that I still believe it is a long shot that zebras will not become extinct in the wild. Thins seem too close to the tipping point.
The other point they made was that there were now a few excellent captive breeding operations producing zebras in quantity. One such is producing 1,000 zebras a week. I know they are breeding excellent fish as I worked with somebody to import over 300 zebras a year ago. The price was very cheap compared to the going market rates. i actually bought myself 25 new zebras at 2 inches as part of the deal. I am happy to report that began spawning about a month ago.
Any fish is only worth what you will pay for it. But i can say this about zebras. Whenever I see one out and about, it still makes me smile. And I have the caves arranged along the front of the tank so I can see many of mine regularly.When after lights out I spot two males on the front glass sparring, I get excited. And bear in mind that I have had zebras since about 2003. I will confess that I have a weakness of the black and white striped plecos. I also keep L236 and super white L236 and L173. I also have kept L450 and H. contradens (a B&W Spotted Hypancistrus).
So, if having a zebra or zebras tickles your fancy despite its tendency to hide, then go for it. But if you are not crazy about keeping them and you have no desire to have them spawn, then spend your money elsewhere. One of the great things about this hobby is there are so many options that there should be a few fish that one just has to have for whatever the reason.
Finally, zebras, once they are at 6 months or older are pretty hardy. The hard part can be having them spawn and if one does, getting the fry to make it to when they become more hardy. Zebra fry are tiny, they do not do well with nitrate and they can get into gunk on the bottom of a tank and this can kill them. So water changes and vacuuming are important if one gets babies.
I really don’t care much for the hiding I really just do not want my zebra to die. Black and white is such a beautiful contrast that I can’t stay away. Almost the same thing is with me when I was younger and tearing through my big fish book I saw a zebra and I was stunned. If the adults are as hardy as they seem then I should be ok. I’m certainly not new to plecos, they are my favorite fish family. The zebra is the fish of my dreams, black and white, small, and a pleco. I’ll see if I can pick one up for a cheaper price at a local fish store or breeder.
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The only one that can really answer this is you. They’re expensive, delicate and hide most of the time. But they are beautiful fish. I’m not a fan of most plecos but if you like them and enjoy them, then it’s worth it.
A cheaper more active and hardy alternative is Synodontis decorus. The have a similar pattern and very easy to keep. Their colors aren’t quite as good and they get around 10” but I think you would probably enjoy keeping them much more
Pretty but substantially larger. I doubt you would want one of those in a 20 long...
