29G Brevis Shell Dwellers

[Lufbramatt]

Hi guys, thought I'd start a journal of my new tang tank. Basically I've always wanted to keep fish, and having recently bought a house I have now got a permament space for a tank. Luckily I was given two free tanks (10G and 29G), 2x arcadia ballasts, a little eheim internal filter, and a load of equipment like nets, siphon etc that my dad had kicking around in the loft from when he kept fish. I have already set up and cycled the 10G, which is currently home to 4x brevis shellies, which are great fun to watch, I love their bulldog mouths with the little teeth and pink eye makeup! I've always loved the colour and behavior of cichlids, and as I live in kent with very hard pH8.0 water out of the tap, africans were the obvious choice.

After some thought, as the 29g was in a sorry state with clouded glass and needed a new lid, I set to work. I made a bracket to hang the light ballasts on the back of the tank, and tarted up the tank with some cheap, slightly damaged flooring from wickes. Only real investment was an Eheim 2322 external filter which I got for a great price from the classifieds on here, as my dad always ran UG filters which wont work with sand.

My initial thought was to set up a typical community with cories, tetras etc but those fish don't interest me that much, so I've decided to move the shellies to this bigger tank and maybe add a couple of ornatus julies for the rocks. Heres how the tank looks at the mo, needs a background (will be dark blue) and some more rockwork to make more caves at the rocky end, and I'll add the shells and java ferm from the 10g which I will break down. Also planning on adding some vallis along the back of the tank to add interest. I'm just going to swap all the cycled media from the 10g into the eheim external on this tank which will avoid another fishless cycle.

Lots more to come soon!

 

[kiriyama]

Hi, good job with the tank and good choice with Tanganyikan Excellent recycling work, cheers for posting, any ideas on further stocking yet ?
Cheers, Sean

 

[Lufbramatt]

cheers, it looks much better now the water has cleared. should be picking up the mountboard for the background tomorrow.

As for stocking, it will be the 4 brevis I already have, thinking of maybe adding another 2 brevis, then either a couple of julidochromis ornatus or black calvus for the rocks, leaning more towards the julies though. Would like something to swim around the top of the water but not sure if there is anything suitable that would work in a 30" long tank. To be honest I'd rather have a understocked tank than risk too much aggression due to overlapping territories. Around christmas if all goes well I'm planning on treating myself to a 4ft 300l tank- the biggest I can fit in the space- which will open up the stocking options a lot.

There is only one LFS in the area that has a decent selection of Tangs (living reef in dartford) so I'm limited to what they have in stock really, don't think I like the idea of getting fish through the post.

 

[kiriyama]

You'll be looking forward to the 4'/300ltr, be a good size for some Cyps, they will use the open water column and give confidence to even the shyest of fish

 

[Lufbramatt]

spent this evening cutting the backdrop to size, miving my java ferns and filter media to the 29 and finally moved the brevis as well who were quickly out and about exploring the 4 inches around their shells. Lights are off at the mo to reduce stress so will hopefully get some pics of the little guys in thier new home tomoro! So far so good! Built up the rocks a bit more so in a week or 2 I will go get a couple of Julidochromis ornatus to add a bit of colour to the tank

 

[Lufbramatt]

well the brevis have settled in nicely, but i really cant imagine another species working in this tank, the two male brevis are fine as long as theyre at least a foot apart, so one of them has taken up territory right next to the rocks and seems to enjoy swimming through the caves, have even seen him investigating the very top of the rock pile, which is a good 10 inches above the sand. So I think I'll just stick to the shellies in this tank. Might take out a couple of the rocks to free up substrate area and add 2 more female brevis's.

Also, two of the brevis have definately paired up in the same shell and have started excavating a big hole in order to bury the shells near their big shell. I was amazed how much sand they had moved for such a small fish!

 

[Lufbramatt]

Finally got round to taking some videos!

Rearranged the rocks again and added some vallis along the back. The java ferns are doing really well and all 3 palnts have new leaves growing.

My girlfriend gave them all names

Larry getting pi$$ed off at me pointing a camera at him and trying to scare me away by flaring his fins. He is about 3 inches long and comes right up to the top of the (18" deep) tank to feed. If brevis are only meant to use a few inches of space around their shell, well I dont think this guy knew about that. He has paired up with one of the females and they have been busy burying a huge 3" diameter turbo shell that they live in together. Funny watching them dig by laying on the sand and wiggling really hard to blow the sand back over the shell!

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8bbYAINjL4

Terry on the other side of the tank:

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0neP3wdMMOY

full tank shot:

I'll try to get some pics of the 3 females that also live in there but are being a bit camera shy tonight

 

[Lufbramatt]

got a vid of the females, the one in the foreground was flashing at the big male, which looks pretty cool

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=39qoXpTun_I

 

[kiriyama]

Nice show going on there, something quite endeering about shellies, loads of fun

 

[Lufbramatt]

got in today and turned their lights on early to have my eye caught by movement at the back of the tank. closer inspection revealed there are at least 2 baby brevises in there The adults must have been getting jiggy while I wasn't watching hehe

Look like they're about 7-8mm long but they're almost transparent so very hard to spot!

Went to my favourite fish shop- Living Reef in dartford, where I got the fish, and had a chat with the lovely lady that runs it, who was very pleased they had had babies , got some food suitable for the fry, and a quote on a nice 4ft seabray tank and stand which will be my birthday pressie!

 

[minnnt]

Hey Matt, really enjoyed reading this thread, you sound like you know what you're doing.

Really pleased you have babies. Tank looks great!

Well done to you!

 

[Lufbramatt]

cheers, cant say i really know what I'm doing yet, just done loads of reading and working it out as i go along!

babies are still in the tank, been feeding them on baby brine shrimp, very cute watching them dart up to get the food with their tiny little mouths. my girlfriend takes great delight at taking the mick out of me feeding them with a turkey baster!

got home today to find one of the females residing in the previously un-paired male's shell. lets see how that one turns out!

 

[Lufbramatt]

little update: still got the brevis who are thriving, have 4 little baby ones that are getting bigger all the time and getting braver too so come and eat with the adults. Still havent managed to kill the plants yet either so all going well! If anyone ever says Brevis are boring, well either theyre wrong or my brevises read the wrong instructions!

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2W6abgFkPo

In other news, thanks to my girlfriend and my dad I am now the proud owner a lovely 4.5 foot, 300ish litre seabray tank which I'm in the process of setting up which will become home to the brevis and a bunch of new tang cichlids as well cant wait! My LFS has some stunning opthalmotilapia ventralis in stock . . .