i finally caved

[punkrockfish]

so after hanging around the cichlid forum for some about a month and actually doing some research into the fish i always see you guys talk about, i have decided to jump on in. since my planted puffer tank went to hell i was looking for something that didnt require a lot of space (college and all) and with interesting animal behavior. the shellies seem to fit my goals, and i know that a lfs around here has ocellatus and brevis. i woke up this morning, marched out the door, came back with a 20gL, bag-o-sand, and now have one cloudy tank. going with the fishless cycle and seeding with some stuff from my old tank to try and help it along. i also figure that if somehow i cant get a hold of shellies when im ready for fish that the 20gL and sand will leave me with options on some other fish. Ph out of the tap is at least 8 (i hate reading the stupid color chart), so i should be good there, but i'll check the water in the tank and see how that is after a couple days. my only question is if my ph somehow becomes low, i have a bag of crushed oyster shells from an old salt water set up, would adding them be ok to raise it? i'll keep you guys posted on my progress, and if you got any ideas on anything let me know.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Woo hoo! Good choices.

Are you getting your fish from the LFS? Whats the LFS water like? More than likely you won't have to raise the pH or even mess with it....pending a major drop. I'd just keep it constant, constant with the water the fish have been in.

Generally tap water (at least not here) will not drop its pH fast enough to do any harm. It takes overnight night to drop only a little....from the readings and testing i've done here at my house.

 

[Orion]

Sweet! IMO, go for the occies. Much more activity than the brevis.

And second what c-man said.

 

[punkrockfish]

im not sure what the water is like at the lfs, and i still want to check out another lfs to see if they have a better selection. the one i went to today has a better selection of equipment, but the other place im going to go is a breeder, so i will see if he has anything when im ready to get fish.

 

[phOOey]

nice, more people getting into shellies .

chances are the lfs water will be pretty much exaglty the same as yours, but if you go to a breeder, they might change it, so best ask them what their ph is if you go down that road.

not much more to add really, unless you've got more questions about types of shellie or anything?

 

[punkrockfish]

im pretty good for now, just need to cycle and find out the selection of fish in the area. when i see what is around i will post again and let you guys know what im thinking of doing. thanks for the replies.

 

[punkrockfish]

so i finally got to the breeder lfs today, and i forgot how much i love that place. they had gold ocellatus, multies, and Neo. Hecqui. im going to end up choosing from one of those 3 species, but wanted to see what you guys thought before i did. im looking at maybe a week left on the cycle and i need to track down some shells (i can get less traditional shells easily, but i'd like to find some good ones before i settle), but within the next 2 weeks im probably going to get the fish. so, what should i get and how many, in your opinions?

 

[Lotus]

This place has a bunch of shells: http://www.cichlidbreeding.com/index.php I have no advice on the other stuff.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I've bought from Cichlidbreeding.com. Awesome place, good quality shells, no broken ones, all clean when they arrived. My Multis seem to prefer their whale's eye shells the most.

If you have any Gourmet food shops around town you could go in and ask for Escargot shells. Those seem to be a really good shell to use.

Any of the shellies are good choices, i'd have a hard time choosing...

 

[Orion]

I too have bought from them. I'd do it agian too.

A 20 may be too small for more than a pair of the hequi. Can't say for sure. I would really think about either the occies or multies.

 

[punkrockfish]

thanks orion, i think i might be leaning towards the occies b/c the ones they had were a really nice color, but the multies were also cheaper, so let me ask this, which fish is more fun to watch?

 

[Orion]

I've only had multies and brevis. The brevis are ok, but honestly pretty boring when it comes to watching them. The multies are a hoot IMO. It still astounds me at how much sand a tiny fish like that can actualy move. But my mulites were not near as entertaining to watch untill I put them in my 75 along with tankmates.

I have always wanted to get some occies. I really hope to get some in the near future. As much spunk as they show, and arguabley the most pretty of the shellies have always begged my attention.

 

[punkrockfish]

hmmm, this will take some thinking, and viewing at my bank account...but thanks for all the input guys, i'll let you know what i decide to do

 

[Exister]

I prefer multies! Less agressive (to each other) than occies, so you can have more fish coexisting in a tank than you could with occies.

And I also heartily recommend cichlidbreeding.com for shells.

 

[punkrockfish]

ok, was checking out the cichlidbreeding.com site and now my next question is...what shells to get? the whale eye appear to be a popular choice from what i have read, but what do you guys have in your tanks?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

When i ordered i wanted to try a few different kinds to see who liked what and such. So i bought some Delphinula, Gold Mouth Turbos, and Whale's Eye. The Whale's eye is the most used shells in the tank and i have more of them than any.

From my experience, i'd save the money and go for all Whale's Eye...at least if you go the Multi Route. Whale's Eye shells have the biggest opening of the ones i mentioned above that i bought.

 

[Orion]

I bought the whales eye and the Turbo's. In the 75, they really don't seem to care what shell they have as long as they have a few shells, but in the species tank they do seem to prefer the whales eye out of any of the others. Sorry, my multies that is.

The whales eye's are probably big enough to serve the occies quite well too. Plus they are very light, so they would have no problems moving them around. The turbo's are heavy, and I doubt any of the smaller shellies would be able to do much to move them other then buring them.

 

[punkrockfish]

thanks, i think im gonna go with the whales eye's, but still gotta figure out which fish to get.

 

[Exister]

Whale Eyes and Gold Turbos here.

 

[punkrockfish]

wooooooohooooooo, shells just came in the mail today, brings me one step closer to getting the fish...and stupid question here, on the website it said the shells came ready to go into the tank, but im still planning on boiling them just to be safe. however, would boiling these shells make them brittle? is there another way to make sure they are sterile, or do you think i can just toss them in the tank. (got them from cichlidbreeding.com if that helps)