Shell Dwellers

[Mystil]

Hello Guys and gals

I went and done it. I bought 3 Tang Similis. A definate pair and Im not sure about the other one yet.

I have been after shelldwellers for a while now but dont know much about that particular sp.

I have shells in the tank (marine tubo shells etc.) but I know they do better with Escargot shells, but I cannot find them in bulk for a right price yet.

Got them in a 2ft tank with very deep sand, shells and some ocean rock.

Just letting them settle in.

My questions:

What foods do they most like? I have some frozen cubes with daphnia etc in them and also New life spectrum.

How often do you feed and how? I have found that feeding them is abit difficult as they dont follow the food around the tank, they expect the food to come to them!

How fast flowing do they like their water to be? I have an internal filter, which has a valve on it that I can adjust.

Can they be kept with other fish/tangs in a 2ft tank?

Where did you get your Escargot shells?

Thanks guys.

I have kept Mbuna for about 2 years now but got abit bored with the same type of fish so wanted to change my small tank to something different.

 

[kiriyama]

HI , congrats on the catch................................

Havnt kept sims yet but I have heard they differ from multies in that they dont colony spawn or colonies the tank, they will spawn then after a while "kick the juvies out"....
Feeding wise, a good quality flake, occassional frozen food (small amount)-(as only 3 fish) , and maybe a bit of spirulina flake once a week, think it helps with roughage/digestion, frozen wise , cyclops always seems to go down a treat.
Floq question, Tangs/shell dwellers really dont appreciate a lot of flow in the tank so would turn the filter down a bit.............
As for tank mates the tank may be a bit tight , have heard of folk trying wcmm, danios, barb a s dithers, I had a similiar sized tank with 6 multies, 1 punctatus and 1 julidochromis dickfeldi, i would look inti some of the smaller julies but dont know if the tank is big enough, you would need to add a rock section for them and they would probably eat the sim fry....................

Hope this helps, Sean

 

[Mystil]

Cheers Sean

Yeah I have someone who wants the babies so that is not a problem.
I have heard someone used a turkey baster to feed their fish?
What would you say is a good quality flake?
I have spirulina already for my other mbuna tank.

I do have baby bristlenose in with them at the moment, which I am feeding a wafer pellet at night now and again.

Anyone ever bought escargot shells from here? http/www.fishandfits.co.uk/services/escargot-shells

 

[kiriyama]

I use Tropical brand - Tanganyika Flake when I can source it, failing that there are plenty of good flake foods avaliable at LFS (sometimes)

Cheers, Sean

 

[Lufbramatt]

My shellies like tetra prima, this food sinks slowly so gives them time to see it in the tank. Mine were shy at first but once they settle in and start recognising you they'll be up at the top of the tank begging for food when you go near the tank, don't worry

Also feed mine frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, mushed up cooked peas. avoid "hard" wafer type foods as they are good at "chomping" but can't really nibble bits of food off like fish with smaller mouths do. So really they need small food they can swallow whole- they eat little insects and insect larvae in the wild.

Got my shells off ebay, search "escargot shells for cichlids" you can get 15 shells for a fiver. Although have since replaced most of them with some stunning marine turbo shells i got from a little shells and nick nacks type shop in cardigan bay in wales. Not quite biotypical but they were so pretty i couldn't resist. EDIT- just opened the "fish and fits" link- thats actually the same retailer as on ebay and would have been where i got my shells. no problems with them.

 

[toddnbecka]

I used marine gold-mouthed turbo snail shells for my multi colony a few years back. Much thicker/heavier shells than the escargots, so they'll last a lot longer in the tank. I wouldn't recommend mixing other species with them in such a small tank, particularly if you want to raise any fry. I feed all my fish NLS .5mm Grow or 1mm Cichlid pellets once daily.