Zebra L046 Project: November 2013

Xingu and Rio Fly In

I was finally ready to receive my first shipment of two Zebra L46 and was excited to wake up yesterday to a message on my phone letting me know that they were on their way. I drove down to the airport, once my phone call was received to let me know they had arrived, and collected them. Both were obviously well packed in their large foam box, very healthy and much larger than I had anticipated, which was very pleasing.

These, my first two zebs, were flown over from a breeder in Melbourne, Australia. He purchased his zebra colonies over 7 years ago. He has two different colonies, both from overseas and probably wild caught. Since the Brazilian government banned export of these fish in 2006 it has become impossible to obtain fresh wild specimens. This breeder was very fortunate to have received what he believes to have been one of the first two lots of them arriving in Australia before the ban. His initial shipment arrived via Singapore from Germany, the second shipment he received also came from Singapore and it is unknown whether they were wild caught or bred. However, it has taken both his colonies over 5 years to begin breeding. He has both colonies in one breeding tank so there is a good mix of bloodlines and strong genes with their fry. He believes they are, in fact, wild caught as they took so long to begin breeding. Tank bred L46 have been known to begin breeding from 3-4 years, this clearly depends on the colony and other factors.

Therefore, I hope my two zebs I purchased prove to be strong and healthy little guys and in a few years time may breed themselves. I'm not 100% sure yet but I believe at least one of my zebs is a male, possibly both. I have named them Xingu and Rio after the river they originate from in Brazil. My two are 5-6 cm long and classed as sub-adults so I am pretty happy with that, the breeder estimates they are just over 2 years old.

So far so good, both fish appear healthy and were very active immediately when unpacked from their foam box. They were carefully acclimatised to their new tank water and have so far settled in well, I even managed a few photo's before they inevitably went into hiding. Fingers crossed my two survive their experience of flying interstate and thrive in their new tank.

I'm looking forward to purchasing some more specimens possibly early next year. I have some on hold with a different breeder in Western Australia who also has two colonies and has been breeding zebs for a few years, his first colony was purchased approximately 8 years ago. I'm just waiting for the fry to grow out some more so they get fat enough to survive the flight to South Australia. I want to mix up my gene pool as much as possible in the hopes that in a few years time mine will also begin to breed.