Lamprologus Multifasciatus

[p1ngu]

Hey all, i recently just saw a few of these little fish for sale, i just have a few questions before i will even think of purchasing them -

* Are they the smallest cichlid?

* Are they fairly easy to look after?

*Any info on their keeping & breeding?

* Are they aggressive?

* I also heard they will be alot better living with apple snails and their shells?

Thanks

 

[freddyk]

They are as small as cichlids get, females barely passing half an inch, males a little more then an inch.

They are easy to keep, but need pristine water.

Shells are a must - apple and escargot shells work well. The more the merrier - go nuts. In the wild they live in very densly shelled areas. They'll even dig the sand and pile the shells together if you don't provide enough, to make clustered nests.

Going with that, they like to dig pits around the shells, so sand, while not vital, is very important. I wouldn't keep them without it.

They are moderately aggressive, but not to any dangerous degree, and will defend their nests against introducers no matter their size, and do a good job of it. They're colony breeders and good parents, so all you need to do is add a bunch and let them go to it. For breeding purposes the PH should be over 8, but they'll do fine otherwise in neutral water.

 

[sylvia]

This is my favourite shell-dweller and freddyk pretty much summarised everything you need to know there but here's a good link for further refference: http/www.cichlidrecipe.com/shellweb/

 

[p1ngu]

Thanks people, just about summed everything up