New to L046

Hi everyone, Im as green as they can get to pleco's breeding. Rams and discus have always been my thing. I was told by my father before he passed "scott, get into pleco's" ha, well I did....possibly in a bigway for a 'newbie'.
I bought a pair of zebra's (from MacDonalds, thats where I met the seller) and paid 3 figures :lol:
Ive had them for 3 months.
Setup: 3FT, Fluval C4 HOB
Parmeters: Temp 86, TDS 90, PH 6.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, food rapashy, blood worms, algae wafers
I do a 30% RO water change with fresh trace added every week.
Zebra behaviour: Male at entry of cave, in and out (waiting for a visitor). The other pleco which I assume is a female has entered his cave a few times. He trapped 'her' lol (I assume its a her and not a him) :thumbup:
After 12 hrs, she got out and had lightly shaded black stripes Im assuming from either him holding her or just gnawing on 'her'. Anyway, ever since she wont go near him but when I do water changes they both flap their fins like a dance in the distance from each other..... Other tank mates are Blue shrimp and guppies....
Any help from the "breeding masters" the jedi's of pleco's here?:woohoo::woohoo:

not a fan of your diet to be honest..... since steering away from blood worms to 046s i have never had any more mystery deaths... i'd lose one or two a year with no visible cause or explanation.... about 4-5 years ago and since havent lost one.... they are carnivores being hypancistrus - throw away your algae pellets.... and repashy grub pie just doesnt contain enough protein to get zebs into spawning condition IMO but some may disagree... but proof is in the pudding and my pudding has been very productive :lol::lol::lol:

not a fan of rain water or RO water etc... i just use tap water and prime..... :thumbup:

Thanks John

Hmmm I see what you mean about the grub pie. Ive started adding blood worm and liver. When you say protein, what would you recommend?

Regarding the PH. My tap water in Stanmore, Sydney comes out at a ph 7.6 and i find by using the RO and adding the trace elements down to 6.0-6.5
One of my patients who is a scientist for the water board in sydney told me that our sydney water is mixed depending on the supply at the time eg: sometimes from the desalination plant at maroubra or from the Warragamba dam. We have a high calcium content which puffers (anyway, thats what he told me). :wb::wb:

Liver and Prawn

I bought some fresh liver and green prawns... they seem to have nibbled on them

stay away from prawns.... too risky to feed high priced fish... use frozen brine shrimp and daphnia , cyclops , rotifers etc...
never used liver before so i cant say its a good thing or a bad thing.... just i'd be feeding more natural foods for the fish....

my zebs spawn in ph of 7.6 and kh of 4
and tds levels of 350-400ppm.....

all the mumbo jumbo about needing low ph and low tds levels are just a crock of manure :thumbup: