Smallest Tanksize For....

[Shovelman]

a pair of the smaller species of shelldwellers? just a male and female and then their shells, or even a singleton? Are they ok being in a tank by them selves?

 

[Lufbramatt]

10 gallon for a pair (18"x12"x12"). They don't do very well by themselves, they just hide, get really stressed and die pretty quickly. Although they're not always the most sociable of fish, they need to have other fish around as otherwise they think everyone else in nearby shells is hiding due to a predator looming somewhere.

Although everyone says shellies do fine in small tanks, mine were much better when I had two pairs by themselves in a 29gal tank (upgraded from a 10) and now they're in my 4.5 footer with other fish, they happily patrol up and down the whole length of the tank (the two brevis males have basically divided the tank down the middle and have claimed half each, not just the 6" radius territory it says in all the books hehe).

 

[kiriyama]

Standard 10 gall is fine although I have done it with smaller, 18x10x10 , I think the best set up was a colony of multies in a tank footprint of 48"x15" , looked great


Cheers , Sean

 

[Lufbramatt]

yeah weird shaped wide, long but shallow tanks work really well for shellies as they don't really need the depth but need space between the shells.

 

[Shovelman]

yeah weird shaped wide, long but shallow tanks work really well for shellies as they don't really need the depth but need space between the shells.

allright thanks guys!