Masked Julie Tank Mates

[onidrase]

Hey guys, I really wanna try to do masked julies in my 37 gallon. I've heard, however, that if thy pair and breed, they get very aggressive. I'm unsure on if I were to get two of them, if I'd be able to put anything else in the tank.

I've been looking to try something new, and an african cichlid tank is something new to me. I also find myself swooning over the julies at the LFS whenever I look at their aquarium, but I don't feel they're worth it if I can only have a pair in a tank this size.

dimensions are 30" long, 12" wide, 24" tall

Would it be possible to not have a pair at all, and just do all males or all females, and have some other compatible fish roaming the sidelines? How do you sex them?

any info is appreciated, thanks much.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Only reliable way to sex them is to vent them. You can have them and a couple of other species. I would add a pair of shell dwellers, and a pair of calvus. If you stack the tank top to bottom with rock you could most likely get more in there.

 

[onidrase]

Only reliable way to sex them is to vent them. You can have them and a couple of other species. I would add a pair of shell dwellers, and a pair of calvus. If you stack the tank top to bottom with rock you could most likely get more in there.

sounds a lot better, I also really like the calvus, never heard of them until now. I'll most likely have the rocks and such stacked really high as long as I don't end up breaking the bottom of the tank in trying such.

 

[onidrase]

I'm pretty sure what I'm going to do. Turns out the julies are marlieri instead of transcriptus, but I honestly like every variety.They're all out of shell dwellers, and they don't carry calvus, but I'll definitely have a look around town for them.

would I really only be able to have a pair instead of a small colony of shell dwellers? Would some synodontis nigriventris be able to fit into the mix?

how would this work?

2 Julidochromis Marlieri
2 Altolambrogus Calvus (it won't eat the shellies or julies with that big mouth?)
2 or more if possible shell dwellers (no idea what kinds of species are stocked around here)
6-8 synodontis nigriventris

 

[thereverendturtle]

That should be fine. I might omit the synos, just because they aren't a lake species.
You can keep pairs or groups of the shellies, just have lots of shells. The calvus are very slow growing close to 5 years to reach maturity and full size. They actually are very peaceful with other fish from my experience.
Marlieri tend to be fairly chill as well. I think the only one even more mellow is transcriptus.
Look at the dwarf cuckoo syno, I think they are a tang and do well in small groups.
Rocks can be stacked all the way to the top without issue of cracking the bottom. Put the first layer on the glass add your substrate and just make sure the rest are stable as you build it up.

 

[onidrase]

That should be fine. I might omit the synos, just because they aren't a lake species.
You can keep pairs or groups of the shellies, just have lots of shells. The calvus are very slow growing close to 5 years to reach maturity and full size. They actually are very peaceful with other fish from my experience.
Marlieri tend to be fairly chill as well. I think the only one even more mellow is transcriptus.
Look at the dwarf cuckoo syno, I think they are a tang and do well in small groups.
Rocks can be stacked all the way to the top without issue of cracking the bottom. Put the first layer on the glass add your substrate and just make sure the rest are stable as you build it up.

is dwarf cuckoo the same thing as synodontis petricola? how many is a "small group"?

 

[thereverendturtle]

Yes, 4-6.
Sorry, I was drawing a blank on the scientific name.

 

[Lufbramatt]

I think that tank would be a bit small for any lake syno- even petricola/lucipinnis. They are very active catfish and swim around a lot, and will annoy the hell out of any shellies you have in there as they scout around the substrate. And although those syno are best kept in groups, they can be quite aggressive to each other as well. I had two adult lucipinnis that went mental at each other and one ended up with most of its barbels bitten off. Thankfully they're pretty tough fish and they've all grown back now. For that size tank, I'd do a pair of julies, one or two pairs of a tough shellie like brevis, ocellatus or ornatipinnis, and maybe some non-tang dithers like small rainbow fish to fill up the height.

Shellies and altolamps IME dont seem to get on very well unless the shellies can establish a big enough territory that they don't feel threatened by them, as altolamps are a fry predator in the wild. In a 30x12 footprint there simply son't be enough floor space. I'm currently having issues with brevis and altolamprologus compressiceps in a 54"x18" tank. The brevis males won't let the comps anywhere near their shells.