Hey peeps, just like to pick your brains about Neolamprologus multifasciatus and dither fish.

I have a small group of multies coming for a 60L tank this weekend and I'm all set (mature tank, shells, sand, rocks, foods etc) and am wondering if I need dither fish? It's going to be a case of seeing how many pair up (hoping for two pairs) and taking the unpaired ones back (so my LFS expert tells me)

I've read about the benefits to some cichlids but not sure if it's good to have them in a tank of multies or not? Was thinking platy or dwarf neon rainbowfish which I've read are good candidates.

Any thoughts would be greatfully received.

Thanks all

I'm not entirely sure that multies pair up. I think there is one dominant male and a number of female that he breeds with. But I could be totally wrong about that. As you probably know multies breed like crazy and are colonial cichlids so the fry will continue to live with the parents - multiple generations of fish live in the same shell colony. As a result, you will soon have a maaannnyyy more than you started with. As long as you overfilter a bit, this is just fine, but it means that you might not want to add any dither fish since there will be a lot of multies. But, if you do want dithers, I have heard quite a few people do use rainbowfish - the smaller ones like Pseudomugil gertrudae or Pseudomugil furcatus . Keep in mind that they like to have planted areas to hide in while the natural lake habitat of multies doesn't really have many plants - so you may have to compromise on an accurate biotope-style tank if that is what you wanted. HTH.
-Larissa

Edit: Don't forget to post pics!!! I'm setting up a mutlie tank in a few months so I will be very interested to see yours!!!

This post has been edited by Larissa: May 20 2008, 03:08 PM

It all depends on whether you want dither fish or not?
Some people prefer to have dither fish as the Multies spend a lot of time at the bottom and there's little movement in other areas of the tank.
When I first brought my Multies, I was led to believe that one male would have a harem of females. I brought nine and after two weeks, I noticed that 4 lots had paired off. I rehomed the single female as she was bullied out by the ithers.
Within eight weeks of owning them, all four pairs had babies. I realised that my 48G would become crowded and ending up rehoming two pairs.
Within 5 months of owning them I had countless fry as the parents were reproducing every 6 weeks. They always stayed as pairs and always defended their own little colony. It was great watching them all interact but the tank wasn't big enough for all of them. When the first lot of fry reached about 3 months, the parents bullied them out of the colony and wouldn't let them back in. I ended up having to rehome them and I was sorry to see them go.
If you do end up with a breeding pair, then it is worth asking your lfs if they will take the fry when they are old enough. They may even give you a credit note for them.
If you don't want to be overrun with fry, then it is worth getting some dither fish to keep the numbers low.

Excellent! Thanks guys! Both your replies are very helpful. Good points from both of you I have M praecox that I was thinking of trying as ditherers as they spend all their time in the upper levels of the tank they're in. If they don't work out I can always pop them back in their current tank.

I am contemplating a bigger tank for them in the near future if they take off well and by the sounds of things they certainly will! My LFS are only too pleased to take any potential fry off me in return for a credit note, so it sounds like they will be happy if my fish start producing fry.

ROll on Saturday is all I can say now. My shells were delivered yesterday so I am all set

Larissa, trust me....there will be photos

This post has been edited by jennybugs: May 22 2008, 08:02 AM

LOL....I thought you meant your multies are "having" multies. That's what your title sounds like...Congrats on the new fish, though

It sounds like that will be the thread topic one day if what I'm reading is anything to believe

I am SO excited now and won't sleep tonight, that's for sure! Also been checking out larger tanks for future reference