Zebra Plec!

[Jay-93]

I saw one at an aquatic place today, they specialise in keeping pretty high quality fish; Plecs, Discus, Electric Blue Rams, Killifish, etc.

I saw it in a tank and then looked at a price tag, £250! Which was weird because only the night before I saw a lot of 10 selling on eBay for over £1500! I hadn't seen one first hand till today.

Anyway, why are these guys so expensive?

 

[lloyd]

i dont really no. . . .but there CARNIVOURES

 

[Verminator89]

They come from the Rio Xingu river in Brazil. Its the only place they originate from, and currently there is ALOT of work being done on the river that is endangering these beautiful plecs. The Belo Monte Dam is being built, which is seriously threatening the fish's migration patterns via the serious reduction in water flow along the river, and is preventing them from breeding. As an already endangered species, this makes matters worse. There is currently an export ban on them because of this, and thus prices for them are extremely high as they are getting rarer and rarer.

One of the most beautifull plecs in the hobby, no doubt.

 

[MBOU]

High Demand + Rare + Slow/Difficult to breed and grow to good size = Expensive!

 

[Dieses Madchen]

i dont really no. . . .but there CARNIVOURES

Actually a true zebra plec is an omnivore

 

[Jay-93]

I don't find Plecs a particularly nice (although useful) fish, but that was very impressive.

 

[lloyd]

i dont really no. . . .but there CARNIVOURES

Actually a true zebra plec is an omnivore

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Also, zebras do not migrate anywhere. There is a good reason they are only found in the big bend of the Rio Xingu. The live in pretty warm fast flowing waters where there are a lot of rapids. They need a high oxygen content in the water and it is the rapids that provide the oxygenation. On either end of their territorial range, there are large stretches of calmer and less well oxygenated water. These act as a barrier to migration up or down stream. Their water is clear and very low in TDS. The building of the dam will put tons of debris into the water and send it down stream and will also effect flow once they get the coffer dam in place. These fish will become extinct in the wild in the next few years. And if that doesn't kill them all, the actual #40## will once completed as it will reduce the wwater level drastically during the dry season to keep the hydroelectric generators running.

In a nutshell they are expensive because they are not really practical to "farm" as they have very small size spawns. 15 surviving fry is a good size spawn.

 

[TyriquePlanty]

Well they are very rare i have 2 female and male i have gotten them for about $50 im working on breeding the two when i get my new tank set up

 

[tkdjr1186]

This thread really makes me sad. Everyone hug your plecos

 

[Dieses Madchen]

This thread really makes me sad. Everyone hug your plecos

I have a Royal and a common and I love them both!!

 

[Squidward]

Must be honest, I don't know why there is so much hype (excuse the pun ) over Zebras.
Yes, they are nice fish, don't get me wrong. But there are other Hypancistrus that are just as nice.
There are loads of other Plecs that are nicely coloured, and some of the bigger ones have more character imo. At a fraction of the cost.
My L114 for eg

 

[moochy13]

my cousin has 2 zebras, and they are nice, but even if i had the money spare for a zebra, id buy 2 or 3 different plecs for the same amount as one tiny zebra. ive not seen many plecs that are so truely black and white. most 'white' ones seem to be creamy, off white colour. the zebras my cousin has are properly, brilliant white and dark inky black. he also has a 'scribble' plec (queen arabesque i think), which to my eyes look just as good in the tank, just without the bragging rights and ridiculous price tag.

 

[xingumike]

Queen arabesque are the only Hypans that come close to Zebs for attractiveness imo.

Hypans are for girls anyway

 

[TwoTankAmin]

XM- I guess you have yet to see L173, L236 or the, perhaps non-existent, L250. All three of these fish sell for more than zebras and, imo, outshine the L260s or any of the other B&W Hypans.

I have 173b from Aquarium Glasser (the b designation indicates it is from 173 parents but is unusually patterned- they are supposed to throw mostly normal looking 173s).

I have a pending deal to trade zebras and cash for some 236s.

Finding anything that even remotely resembles the L250 would involve lottery luck. First just to find one is akin to winning the lottery and then if you did, paying for it would probably require that you have already won the lottery

Poke around on PlanetCatfish or here for some neat pics http/www.aquarium-glaser.de/en/fish.php?parent_id=18〈=en