Tanganyikan Multies!

[Brahmza]

Hello everyone! I have a 20g long stocked with 5 mutlie cichlids. I'm focusing on breeding, and I'm curious if there are any types of scavanger/bottom feeder fish that could go with them. They lay eggs in shells, so the eggs should be theoretically safe, I just don't want something that the multies will kill. Curious if there are any options out there. Was going to try snails, but given they're shell dwellers, I wouldn't want them eaten up as a snack..hah. Or any other tank mate that might pick food off of the bottom.

 

[Brahmza]

Bump. Update on the tank, I've added 2 more multies and a group of mystery snails. The snails seem to be doing well, but I'm curious if I could add a top-dwelling fish, like hatches, danios or rainbows. Thanks!

 

[TooManyChoices]

Hatchets are a definite no. They won't go well in hard, alkaline water. Danio's are pretty tolerant but I wouldn't recommend it. And the tank's a bit small for most rainbows. 
 
At the end of the day if you want to focus on breeding it'd be better to just have to multi's otherwise by the sounds of it you want to focus more on a display tank. 

 

[Brahmza]

Alright. All I needed to know pretty much. Thanks!

 

[crisycrunch]

I would leave it the way it is.  Being a smaller tank the multis may get too aggressive on any other introduced species.  They be busy guarding and protecting their fry from eachother.

 

[onidrase]

I used to have a breeding colony of these guys in a 50 gallon and they were murdering anything that got near them, even the compressiceps cichlids that tend to be left alone due to their sharp scales. They didn't back down for anything. I'd leave it as is, any bottom feeders you add would eat the fry anyway, if not just get attacked.