Where to find Zebra pleco's ?

MightyWarMonger

MightyWarMonger

I probably alredy hate you !!!
Mar 18, 2007
141
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Maryland
I'm looking for a good place to find a breeding pair of zebra pleco's but I'm having trouble finding them. I don't wish to pay an arm & a leg for one either. I understand that they are hard to com by but $500 US each is to much I think to pay for them. I live in MD and would like to find some one relitivly close to get them from I would rather not have to ship them and would like to see them first. Any help in this would be greatly apreiciated.
 
I don't think anyone wants to pay an arm and a leg, but that's what you'll have to do. The last pair I saw for sale went for $1000 on aquabid. Because they grow so slowly, very few are sold as adults and you'll have better luck finding fry. Those are "only" $150 each. Go to zebraplecos.com; they have a trading post where people sell fry. Sometimes you can get extra adult males, but adults females very, very rarely get sold.
 
juveniles might cost you $150 to $200 each, but then you can't sex them when they are 1-1.5" long, and you have to get a bunch and wait & see what you get as they grow. sexed ready-to-breed adults probably will be in the $4-500 range. there's no good way to find them for cheap, unless someone sells you their deformed culls, and you wouldn;t want to breed those.
 
Good luck!
 
What are some of the most important things to consider about the care of this type of fish? I know that they eat meat and like temps of 80-85 degrees. They like hiding places and are nocturnal fish. Is there some other important things I should know about them?
 
Have you been to zebrapleco.com? I'd memorize everything on that site before dropping $500 on a fish/group. :)

My limited knowledge is that they're from deeper water with fast current and sand bottoms. So get a good filter and keep the tank dark. They're cave spawners, too. You can get nice slate caves on aquabid. Good luck!
 
thanks for the tip I certanly will do. I am curently reading as much as I can right now. I want to know as much as I can about the care of them and have every thing set up and ready before I even buy them, I would hate to pay that much and have them die on me. I don't realy like it when any of my fish die but it would realy suck to have $500 worth of fish die.
 
I have not seen any proven breeders for sale since I lucked into a colony last year. I don't even see that many adult size available and as mentioned, they are usually males and not fms.

Those fish are really not that hard to keep- I find my discus to be harder to keep healthy than my zebras. The difficulty is getting adults to start spawning. While some say the fry are hard to raise, I have not found this to be the case. Given good clean water and proper food along with a regular maint. routine, they do just fine.
 
Yes I was reading you're "zebra pl*co saga" thread and I'm taking notes on tank set up and how you care for them as well as there diet. I think it's an awsome thread and verry informatinal the best sourse I have found yet on zebra pleco. I read and reread the part about you're filter set up with the tube and all and I'm still trying to figure it out (not as poor writing by you it's my poor understanding of the matter), I will read it again till I figure it out. I hope to have enugh knowlage some time soon so I can get a few I think they are the coolest little fish I have seen yet. I have a 46gal bowfront at the moment but I want a seperat tank for the zebras.
 
If you don't already have one, get a R/O unit. Zebra pleco's are very particular about their water chemistry if you hope to breed them.
 
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