Suitable Shell Dwellers....

[jkrekord]

Hello
I have decided to set my 100 litre tank up for shell dwellers, i will also be keeping some halfbeaks which will occupy the upper regions of the tank and act as dither fish for the shell dwellers. (Post which led to this decision can be seen here )
My first question is what species of shell dweller would you reccomend? Lamprologus Occelatus seem nice...
My second question is how many males and how many females could i have in that tank once they have paired up?
For substrate i shall use crushed coral sand. What would be the best type of shells to use?

 

[the_evil_duboisi]

Brevis They have the smallest space requirements of all shellies.

Occies are cute too, but are rather more aggresive towards intruders in their territory.

I think a pair would be enough.....Understocking is always better

You could use shells from the grocery store, or sea or hermit crab shells bought from pet stores.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Fella]

Brevis They have the smallest space requirements of all shellies.

What about multifasciatus??

 

[jkrekord]

Ok cheers for that info, bit of a bummer about only being able to have 1 pair, i imagine the behaviour between 2 pairs must be fascinateing... oh well.

 

[stang1]

Multifasciatus are great little fish and fascinating to watch. Just be careful if they start breeding, they can soon take over the tank!
I tried keeping Occelatus but found them to be really aggressive. I managed to get a pair to breed but then the male terrorised the female and wouldn't let her anywhere near the shells. He also liked attacking me if I put my hand in the tank.

 

[jumpman]

Brevis They have the smallest space requirements of all shellies.

What about multifasciatus??

Agreed, multifasciatus are a colony builder so you can start of with a few any before long have a thriving colony of 20+ with adults and sub adults and fry all living together in the shell bed. if you are after a more active tank then I would suggest these too....

 

[stang1]

The only problem with Multis is the breeding. I had two pairs of breeding adults in a 48G tank and they were producing between 12-18 fry every 6 weeks. I had two seperate colonies at each end of the tank as both sets of parents became very protective of their young and territorial towards one another. Unfortunately, as the first lot of fry became bigger, they were bullied out by the parents and I had to rehome them.

 

[tophat665]

I just got 6 multis, my first rift lake cichlids, and my first cichlids of any kind in 20 years (Had some angels as a kid). In any cse, I have them in a 20 high with coral in the filter, a nice feldspar rock pile, a dozen murex shells (not too spiky) along with the two escargot shells they came with, and a thick planting of giant vals along the back and sides (which I'll need to rim this weekend). Nifty little critters.

 

[the_evil_duboisi]

Yeah. Multies are more aggresive about breeding(And territory), and they are step breeders, so they keep on raising alternative fry. So you would be crowded.

With the brevis......They don't care for the fry longer than nessesary, so you may not be THAT overcrowded too quickly.

 

[jkrekord]

Getting overcrowded is not a problem.... i work at an LFS so can easily take fish there once they get big enough.