My 3 young L046's

I'm moving them to a different tank in with the adults in hopes of triggering a spawn, so I took a bunch of pictures. Not 100% sure on sex so if you know please chime in!
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Those are some awesome plecos. Where are they from? Sorry I don't understand the letter and number names yet?

"Hypancistrus zebra is native to Brazil. The only reported habitat being on the riverbed of the Rio Xingu"
They are unfortunately planning on building a dam in their native habitat and that very well could wipe them out in the wild.

ThaT sucks there natural place is gonna get ran over.

I am SOOOOOO jealous!!! I wanted one of these soo bad. But just can't afford them! Gorgeous looking fish! I would give a whole tank to one if I needed to lol

they look awesome... too bad only the ugly common pleco gets big and not the cool colored guys like these... They would look unbelievable at 2 foot long! lol

I agree with Sand!! Let's breed them and make them morph into bigger ones but look like the zebra's

fern were did u score thoughs , i need some pm me

They are quite often on aquabid.com

WOAH....those are some cool plecos...
nice job on getting those.

They are beautiful. Good luck with the spawning!

I'm hoping to get the adult pair moved over into the 30g I moved the younger guys to.... Hopefully this week.
I got these guys at just under and inch and they are about 2 inches now.
I will share pics of the adults when I get them moved over.

Very cool looking fish. Spawn and ship some out west please

If they spawn I already have like 20 people on the list for fry Yall do know how much they run?

I found one guy on a forum selling them for $120 each if you buy 5. With a price that high I am surprised more have not mass bred them... supply vs. demand.

Are they harder to care for then other plecos? Or is the care about the same. Also
what do they max out at as far as size?

fern pm me the price for a couple when u get em

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Paint, they take quite some time to mature, these are 2 1/2 years old and they have some ways to go yet.

endangered cichlids, it will be a while but I will let you know. I may want to bolster my group before I sell any.

I had a breeding pair of them about 6 or 7 years ago. I sure do miss them. But I know the price back then was about five times more than what they are now.

1fishkeeper wrote:I had a breeding pair of them about 6 or 7 years ago. I sure do miss them. But I know the price back then was about five times more than what they are now.

Wow that's crazy, whatever happened to your pair? Did they die if old age or you sold them?

Awesome lil L046s', i just cant wait till i can get some of them. Maybe in a few months if i get this job. Definatly fantastic

I sold them when I got orders to come up here. I didnt want to put them through the stress of a 2000 mile trip. I know the store that I sold them to they had them breeding and was sold alot of there babys for a good price just to get them out for everyone to enjoy. But that was part of the deal when I sold them to them they they couldnt ask a crazy price for the babys. I think they were asking around $100 for one that was around 1"-1 1/2" in size.

Down the road when I have a really nice established setup. For now, the Bristle Nose and Gold nuggets will do...
all my years of fish keeping, I never got into Plecos Maybe 2011, I can start a collection of rare Plecos, but the L046 will be last on my list.
Only because I can't afford to loose 1.

At what length do they need to be to spawn? Can these be sold to a lfs? I might have a chance to come up on a pair. For two is 600 too much? Is there any known ph level that's good for breeding? If I picked them up would I have any shortage of buyers??

Usually advertised pairs are BS from what I have heard. Be very careful, and study up on these. Fern has some nice ones They have been on my list of fish to get for 2 years now. Allot advertise them as WC, and pairs but the reality is they are usually too small to be WC, and it is illegal to export them. The legal issue combined with the time and difficulty of breeding leads to their very high prices. They used to be like $10 each before the export Ban and all over LFS's. Very cool fish and somewhere there is probably some old coot with a tank full of them that has no idea their value!!

Do want

I just wish I could find someone to sell me ten of them for under a grand and I'd start breeding them for Washington