Shell Dwellers

ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#1
Mar 22, 2010
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#1
I've been reading up on them a lot lately, and they seem really cool.
I know nothing about any type of cichild since I've never kept them before, but what other kinds of fish can you keep with them?
Will they fight with corys and and plecos and other fish that tend to hang out around the bottom? Is 40 gallons (assuming there were no other fish in it) enough room to keep a fair amount of shell dwellers?

I'm not ready to donate all the fish I currently have, so this is more just me asking questions I guess, but if someone wanted to tell me what fish that are already in my tank would work with shell dwellers, that would be nice of them...
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#2
Feb 27, 2009
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#2
They are a rift lake cichlid, so need very hard water. I don't think cories would do well with them just on the water differences, let alone the space issue (being mostly bottom dwellers).
 

ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#3
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#3
I guess this is more of a future plan of mine than something I'm looking to do right now. I'll be moving a fair distance when I graduate college the May after this one, and rather than put the fish I have through that I've kind of resolved to give them away to friends/LFS when I have to move. Shell dwellers was more of something I was looking at doing once I'm all set up after moving.

That's a shame, I think cories are really awesome fish. I guess I'd have to make up my mind what I want more since I don't really want to set up two tanks. : /

What about tank size? Is a 40 breeder pretty good? I read that shell dwellers like more footprint opposed to more height, so that sounds promising. What about tank mates? I suppose if plecos, being acidic water fish and also a bottom dweller, are out snails might be a good cleaner crew? What about some top water fish that do well in higher pH water?
 

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Fishman1995

Superstar Fish
#4
May 11, 2010
1,341
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#4
Ryanoh, il be getting some Shelldwellers for my 20 gallon. Im PLANNING on adding in with them 6 Pearl Danio's and hopefully 3 Panda Garra's (ive never seen them for sale before at my local Petsmart nor my other LFS) and that leaves about 40-45% playing room for me and considering that according to aqadvisor i can fit 12 of the Neolamprologus Multifasciatus in there i think im going to do 2 Males and 10 females. I may leave the Garra's out and get a snail to clean so then i could get even more of them lol. I will get pics of them when i get them and let you know how it goes.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#5
Feb 27, 2009
4,395
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#5
ryanoh said:
What about tank size? Is a 40 breeder pretty good? I read that shell dwellers like more footprint opposed to more height, so that sounds promising. What about tank mates? I suppose if plecos, being acidic water fish and also a bottom dweller, are out snails might be a good cleaner crew? What about some top water fish that do well in higher pH water?
Click to expand...
ShellDwellers.com - Index

Lots of good info there specifically about shellies. Multis can be kept in as small as 10 gallons. Yes, they do like more floorspace than up/down swimming room. A 20gallon long, 40gallon breeder, 75 gallon, all work well with them.
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#6
Feb 27, 2009
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#6
Fishman1995 said:
Ryanoh, il be getting some Shelldwellers for my 20 gallon. Im PLANNING on adding in with them 6 Pearl Danio's and hopefully 3 Panda Garra's (ive never seen them for sale before at my local Petsmart nor my other LFS) and that leaves about 40-45% playing room for me and considering that according to aqadvisor i can fit 12 of the Neolamprologus Multifasciatus in there i think im going to do 2 Males and 10 females. I may leave the Garra's out and get a snail to clean so then i could get even more of them lol. I will get pics of them when i get them and let you know how it goes.
Click to expand...
Danio and Garra do not want the hard water the shellies require...
 

ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#9
Mar 22, 2010
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#9
Cool, thanks.

Does any type of sand help buffer the pH or does it need to specifically be crushed coral. I have play sand in my tank with MTS to aerate it for me, but if I were to convert to a shell dwelling cichild tank would all of my trumpet snails be eaten? I know that in general cichlids eat snails, but I can't seem to find a concrete answer online if the smaller 'shellies' will or not. If I do eventually go the route of these cichlids is having snails to aerate the sand even a concern of mine or will the fish mix up the sand enough to prevent any problems?

Also, what's the most colorful breed of shell dweller out there? I've googled a little bit but can't really seem to find that great of pictures...
 

Twiggles

Twiggles

Medium Fish
#10
May 4, 2010
91
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#10
ryanoh said:
Cool, thanks.

Does any type of sand help buffer the pH or does it need to specifically be crushed coral. I have play sand in my tank with MTS to aerate it for me, but if I were to convert to a shell dwelling cichild tank would all of my trumpet snails be eaten? I know that in general cichlids eat snails, but I can't seem to find a concrete answer online if the smaller 'shellies' will or not. If I do eventually go the route of these cichlids is having snails to aerate the sand even a concern of mine or will the fish mix up the sand enough to prevent any problems?

Also, what's the most colorful breed of shell dweller out there? I've googled a little bit but can't really seem to find that great of pictures...
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It doesn't need to be like raw crushed coral, there's a product called Argonite that is basically like crushed coral and raises the pH but it comes in a number of grain sizes. There's a specific one for cichlids which I have mixed in with white silica sand in my 65 gallon tang tank. I would think that MTS would survive and continue to have a population, the shellies would probably just push them out of the way if they came close: I'm actually not sure shell dwellers would eat them, my guess would be no .. and to answer the second part of question, yeah your shell dwellers, especially if you were to get Multifasciatus they would be moving the sand around constantly.

There are a good number of shell dweller species available. many of the Lamprologus species are colorful, one in particular being Ocellatus 'gold'. Some of the Neolamprologus species are exceptional as well; like Brevis, Multifasciatus as I mentioned earlier, and there's Caudopunctatus also known as 'punks' which have like a yellow band on their dorsal fin they're pretty cool.

I've been planning on getting shell dwellers for a Tanganyika tank for about 6 months and it looks like this week I might actually be getting my fish so I pumped lol. I haven't fully decided which one I want yet but a portion of the tank is also rocky which I'm going to give to a species of Julidochromis. I was a little surprised to see this thread cause I hadn't heard anyone talk about them till now. And like OC was kind of saying, yeah don't put fish that don't belong in lake Tanganyika in with shell dwellers. It just doesn't make sense to me, I believe tangs should stick with the tangs. Their environment is truly unique and their requirements are different from that of the fish mentioned earlier. Let this video Inspire you;

YouTube - Jewel of the Rift 06
 

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ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#11
Mar 22, 2010
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#11
Cool video. I watched part 1 and 2 to that yesterday I think.

The four I've been reading about today and considering are Neolamprologus brevis, Lamprologus ocellatus, Neolamprologus multifasciatus, and Neolamprologus similis.

I'm not 100 percent clear on how cichlid keeping works. Do I just chose one species or is it possible to keep more than one depending on the size of the tank? Are there more Tanganyika fish besides shell cichlids?

Congrats on getting your fish finally. I know that's always super exciting.
 

Twiggles

Twiggles

Medium Fish
#13
May 4, 2010
91
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#13
ryanoh said:
The four I've been reading about today and considering are Neolamprologus brevis, Lamprologus ocellatus, Neolamprologus multifasciatus, and Neolamprologus similis.
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Those are 4 solid shellies, you couldn't go wrong with any of those. They're each a bit different it terms of behavior but all interesting and usually very common as well.

ryanoh said:
I'm not 100 percent clear on how cichlid keeping works. Do I just chose one species or is it possible to keep more than one depending on the size of the tank?
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Generally shell dwellers prefer a species only tank, as in they're the only species of shell dweller in there. But yes if the tank is considerably big you could keep more than one kind, but it's not ideal if you're planning on having a breeding setup. I think another factor is that shellies are geographic, like it's a huge lake and I would imagine it would be rare to see more than 2 or 3 species all living really close to each other. As far as cichlid keeping goes you just have to do a lot of research. It's not really one of those things you can just explain over a few paragraphs unfortunately. There's some good books out there, and a good handful of internet resources. Fishbooks, like ones you might find at your fish store are better for learning about all the species because it's hard to find a site that has a list of all the species described.

ryanoh said:
Are there more Tanganyika fish besides shell cichlids?
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Oh my yes, many species. Tanganyika is basically the birthplace of the African Cichlid. In my opinion they're the most fascinating and beautiful.
 

ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#14
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#14
I guess by other fish I meant fish that weren't cichilds. I've come across a lot of people who seem to keep plecos in their tanks. I know that parameters aren't ideal for plecos, but could it be done?
 

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OrangeCones

Elite Fish
#17
Feb 27, 2009
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#17
One thing that is really easy about shellies, from what a buddy tells me that breeds them, is that its so easy to move them to another tank. The minute you put a net in the tank, they all dive for cover inside their shells. He then just reaches his hand in the tank, picks the shell up and puts it in the net while still underwater (incase they try to bail out of the shell), and move shell with fish included to another tank.
 

ryanoh

ryanoh

Large Fish
#18
Mar 22, 2010
858
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#18
I actually thought about that while I was watching the link that Twiggles sent me during the part where the one fish is moving the shells full of females into his pile. They seem like very unique fish to say the least.
 

Orion

Orion

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
#19
Feb 10, 2003
5,803
3
38
Kentucky
www.thefishcave.net
#19
You will not be disappointed if you get a species of shellie. My personal recommendation would be to start with a group of Multies in a 10 gallon tank. This way you can easily keep up with them, learn about them, and not have to worry about other tank mates. May sound boring just having a handful of inch long fish, but it's really not. Multies are an easy to keep, breed like crazy, fairly easy going shellie and great to get your feet wet with them so to speak.

And I just second all the great info in this thread!

Some species are harder to deal with than others, but they are all rewarding to keep.
 

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