steveangela1

Is another name for a zebra pleco a "ghost pleco" if so I found one for 5 dollars in a classifed ad in my area....I really want one and that is very very cheap... I rarely find common plecos for that price! They also have a gold nugget for 8 dollars... Ive already told them that I want without a doubt.

steveangela1

sorry for the double post if it is a zebra pleco I guess it won't be my zebra pleco... I just read the "profile" and the ph requirements alone are not in any of my tanks... all of my ph in my tanks is 8.0... it will be my mothers zebra in her south american tank....

susitna-flower

I doubt that a "ghost pleco" is a zebra pleco.....I would love to see a picture of it however, I've never heard of one.

Most people with zebras know they have a treasure, and wouldn't sell it for $5. Do they know the L #?

Of course any pleco can be fun in a tank, as long as you know it won't out grow your tank size. It is also important to identify them so you will understand their feeding needs.

steveangela1

I got an email from that person he labeled it wrong and sent me a pictured, it is a clown pleco... I still want the 2 plecos and will take them I wish it was a zebra pleco.. they are a true jewel to get! even if i had to put it in my moms tank 30 min away!

COBettaCouple

Cool.. Yea, Clown Plecos are a great pickup.

susitna-flower

I'm jealous! Have fun with your pleco's.

Sabi

Ya, zebra's a really hard to get and when you do come across them they are ever so expensive!
Clowns are great tho!

blue_sable

the L # is L46 for the zebra and you wont find one for less then $180 and thats if you are lucky when they spawn they only lay 7-15 eggs at a time. that is only one reason. they are located only on a five mile stretch of the Rio Xingu river in brazil where they started the Belo Monte Dam. it will wipe out their colony completly they can not be exported into the us at all the only hopes that we have of getting any here is that they breed alot.
there are a few breeders here in the us but there is a fairly high demand for them because they are beautiful so it is like a waiting list to get one. they just sell so fast.

Butterfly

They cannot be imported from their natural habitat. BUT.. they can be imported from hobbyist in other countries who are raising them. There are numerous L46 listed at Aquabid.com for sale (for huge amounts of money) from other countries.
Carol

sirdarksol

Yeah, all it takes is one breeder to get his/her hands on a few specimens and get them to breed. On Aquabid, there are literally hundreds of L46, many of them large groups meant to develop a breeding colony.
This is one of the most beautiful things about the fishkeeping hobby. There are certain animals whose habitats have been destroyed, but they are kept alive in aquaria all over the world.
This is the case with the zebra pleco. Right now, they're expensive, but it's likely that, if enough people breed them, the prices will come down.

susitna-flower

You have to be SOOOOooooo careful though, not to fall for something that you can't prove is a legetimate deal. On aquabid, I have seen some things that really make me wonder, and where the big dollars come into play, I would be very careful.

One breeder in the states I saw, posted pictures others were concerned were out of a magazine, and his add was pulled.....

I think the zebras are especially susceptable to scams since they are so sought after...

Butterfly

Your exactly right. some of the plants from plantgeeks were used until the seller was advised to pull them or else. Also loach pictures from loaches.com
so yes you have to be careful. I check their feed back before I order. Aquabid suggests an escrow account for big money items.
Carol

Barbrella

What a coincidence. I was looking at some plecos at Aquabid, and saw a pic I thought looked familiar. Sure enough, the same picture is posted on PlanetCatfish and the fish belongs to that member.

Butterfly

Hopefully that member was the one doing the selling If not ....... GGRRR
Thats why I'm so anal about reminding everyone to give credit and link pictures instead of just using them.
Sorry for the hijack.
Carol

sirdarksol

Using stock photos doesn't necessarily mean that an auction is a scam. If most of the zebra pleco auctions were scams, Aquabid would be getting a large number of complaints about them, and would be taking action (it happened on eBay, when people started selling burned DVDs, every piece of media you bought would come with a warning to verify the legitimacy of the DVD/CD you were buying). Fake sales hurt Aquabid. Many people use stock photos because they are better shots than the seller is capable of taking. They might not have the cool little planted setup, or they might not have a good camera, or they might just be too lazy to take a picture. None of these is an excuse, of course, just a reason. I usually don't buy from someone if they haven't taken their own picture for the reasons given above, as well as the fact that I just can't see the condition of the object for sale.

However, your point is very well made, and there probably are people who are just trying to screw others over. (Okay, so since, right now, the majority of the auctions are by one person, it's either a guy trying to run a lucrative breeding business, or a guy trying to rip a bunch of people off). There is one guy who is doing pickup only. It's unlikely that one is a scam.

Anyway, the point I was making was that these fish are available in the US. They may not be exported from Brazil, but as Butterfly said, the ones that were already in the US (or whatever other country) before the ban was enacted can be bred and sold.

Barbrella

I agree totally that it doesn't. The fish being sold may be perfectly fine and look just like the ones pictured.

However, using a pic of a fish that someone else raised and photographed and claiming it as your own is a bit dishonest and would make me question my dealings with that person.

As for the zebras: I would think that someone who is asking people to pay 500$ for a fish should either get a decent camera, or have a professional take pictures if the owner is a lousy photograher.

Once I wanted to use a graphic from the net as a logo on some animal rescue documents. I emailed the person who created it and asked permission. It's not hard to do!

Anyway, all that is just my opinion!

Butterfly

[quote=Barbrella;345293 permission. It's not hard to do!

Anyway, all that is just my opinion![/quote]
yep, and that was exactly what the owners of the pictures I mentioned said. ask first or note "pictures by(whoever).
I have noticed alot of the sellers are now saying "not picture of actual fish being sold"

FL CommunityFans

Unless there is some other fish that looks just like a zebra pleco, someone got a steal this week at our local Petland. Last night I stopped by Petland while looking at some african mixes, and saw a pleco that looked identical to a zebra. I stopped to look at it, and sure nuff, it said it was a zebra pleco. It was already on hold for someone, and she paid only 9.99$ for it. I was in total shock.