Zebra plecos jumping

  • Get the NEW AquariaCentral iOS app --> http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1227181058 // Android version will be out soon!
Apr 2, 2002
3,531
640
120
New York
Should be fine. A couple of degrees warmer would be nicer. The shrimp may have issues with high flow. I was just sent some blue dreams and I have their red cousins. Neither is in a high flow tank. But the zebra needs good oxgenation more than flow. The warmer water is, the less O it can hold. Therefore, surface aggitation is important.

There are other Hypancustrus from the Xingu that are more expensive than zebras, I keep them as well. Many of the tanks are filtered solely with air powered Poret foam cubes and/or Mattenfilters.

The fish from the middle Xingu (and other rivers in the Amazon system) are used to big swings in conditions, especially temperature. They almost thrive on change. I had a heater malfunction in a tank with a pair of wild discus, some rummy nose tetras and a small group of L450 (a Hypan, but not from the Xingu). The tank heated to about 105F. The discus were dead, the tetras were mush balls but those 450s were hunkered down in their caves. I got the bad heater and dead fish out and did a big water change to drop the temp back into the low 80s. All of the 450s survived and about a month later they began to spawn.

For most zebra keepers the issue isn't keeping them alive, it's having them spawn. They are pretty hardy once they get to about 5 months old.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sprinkle

Ijustlikefish

AC Members
Mar 14, 2021
41
7
8
31
Should be fine. A couple of degrees warmer would be nicer. The shrimp may have issues with high flow. I was just sent some blue dreams and I have their red cousins. Neither is in a high flow tank. But the zebra needs good oxgenation more than flow. The warmer water is, the less O it can hold. Therefore, surface aggitation is important.

There are other Hypancustrus from the Xingu that are more expensive than zebras, I keep them as well. Many of the tanks are filtered solely with air powered Poret foam cubes and/or Mattenfilters.

The fish from the middle Xingu (and other rivers in the Amazon system) are used to big swings in conditions, especially temperature. They almost thrive on change. I had a heater malfunction in a tank with a pair of wild discus, some rummy nose tetras and a small group of L450 (a Hypan, but not from the Xingu). The tank heated to about 105F. The discus were dead, the tetras were mush balls but those 450s were hunkered down in their caves. I got the bad heater and dead fish out and did a big water change to drop the temp back into the low 80s. All of the 450s survived and about a month later they began to spawn.

For most zebra keepers the issue isn't keeping them alive, it's having them spawn. They are pretty hardy once they get to about 5 months old.
Final question, do you think they will jump out of my tank? The tank will not have a rim.
 
Apr 2, 2002
3,531
640
120
New York
I have never seen any of my plecos jump. They will swim against current is about it, I have used a variety of filters and never had a zebra end up in a hang on. Although I use lids, sometimes after feeding all the tanks I forget to close a lid. I never found a zebra, or any other pleco, outside a tank.

I keep 20 tanks now and more in the past. All have lids because that would be a lot of evaporation and humidity going into the air. It would mean topping up tanks, something I almost never do. Only when illness or travel has prevented me from doing weekly maint. do I even see water levels below the top rim.

I can take it a step further. I have never had a cory jump, never had an oto jump, never had any of my farlos or whiptails jump. What I have had jump were swortails from buckets, one yoyo loach, but I had put a H.O.T. magnum on the tank to polish the water and it jumped where the filter was. The fish jumped against the return flow. I also had an SAE jump. It went out of a Q tank though the space in the lid in front the the return from an AquaClear filter. Considering I have kept many 100s of zebras, 173s, 236, contradens 450s, P. compta and assorted BN, not a one has ever jumped out of a tank, bucket or specimen box.
 

Ijustlikefish

AC Members
Mar 14, 2021
41
7
8
31
I have never seen any of my plecos jump. They will swim against current is about it, I have used a variety of filters and never had a zebra end up in a hang on. Although I use lids, sometimes after feeding all the tanks I forget to close a lid. I never found a zebra, or any other pleco, outside a tank.

I keep 20 tanks now and more in the past. All have lids because that would be a lot of evaporation and humidity going into the air. It would mean topping up tanks, something I almost never do. Only when illness or travel has prevented me from doing weekly maint. do I even see water levels below the top rim.

I can take it a step further. I have never had a cory jump, never had an oto jump, never had any of my farlos or whiptails jump. What I have had jump were swortails from buckets, one yoyo loach, but I had put a H.O.T. magnum on the tank to polish the water and it jumped where the filter was. The fish jumped against the return flow. I also had an SAE jump. It went out of a Q tank though the space in the lid in front the the return from an AquaClear filter. Considering I have kept many 100s of zebras, 173s, 236, contradens 450s, P. compta and assorted BN, not a one has ever jumped out of a tank, bucket or specimen box.
Thank you, that settles it, I’m gonna get my first zebra
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store