Which shellies?!

[karma_llama]

I'm in a bit of a muddle, as always happens when you get a lovely selection of anything to choose from, i cant decide which shell-dwellers to buy. Any on got any ideas, or preferences. I think i can pretty much get hold of whichever variety i want.

Also i've resigned myself to the fact that the best thing to keep with shellies is a couple of julies, and like the look of dickfeldi, any one got any experience of these?

Thanks

 

[Miles44]

My favs. are my boulengeri and punks. I prefer to keep them in a sp. tank only though. Starting out I would say multies. If you want to breed I wouldn't mix yet. Try out a colony of multies and see if you like them. Just my opinion though. Good luck with what ever you decide.

 

[Orion]

Multies are just a great shellie all around. They dig and move the sand like there is no tommarow. Brevis are a little less active in that department, prefering to dig pits infront of the shells, but are bigger and are much more able to stand up aginst larger tank mates.

These are the only two I've had personal experence with. But the punks have always sounded great to me, as well as the occies. If I was going to get something and not settle for what the LFS had to offer, I might try some of the telematts or even the alto. sumbu dwarfs.

If you are going to want to keep and raise a lot of fry, then I would skip on the julies all togeather and go with a species tank. I have the dickfeldi 'midnights' and I love them. But they do seem to be very good fry hunters. 6 months in with my brevis pair not a single fry was seen. A week with out the julies and I saw fry last night from them. They are not aggressive at all twords the adults however, but mine are still juveniles. I don't think they would be anyway.

 

[Gunnie]

Another good place for shellie info. besides right here is www.shellDwellers.com which has profiles on all the shellies, and is a site exclusively for shell dwellers.

 

[phOOey]

that shelldwellers website is great! helped me a lot when i started out with shellies. multies are great, i also really like the look of n. meleagris.

 

[karma_llama]

i do like the multies and the caudopunctatus, i think you may have helped me narrowed it down a bit, thanks

if is switch to a species only tank how many shellies could i have in a 29 gallon?

also, if i use my holiday to croatia as a 'rock collecting' trip will they be okay in the tank with the shellies, no problems with type of rock or anything? Just make sure it's clean?

 

[Orion]

the biggest think with collecting rocks is to be sure not to get any with metal deposits in them, as they can prove to be toxic to the fish. Some rocks my alter the pH and hardness , those that have calcium and other mineral deposits, but with Tangs, I wouldn't worry about that. They prefer a higher pH anyway.

Not sure on the caudopunks, but you could have a good sized multie colony in the foot print of a 29. You may however enjoy getting fewer adult mutlies to start out with, and watch over the years as the colony expands and fills the tank bottom.

 

[karma_llama]

i like the idea of the colony expanding over time, so how many would you recommend starting with to do it this way?

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Also i live in a very soft water area so bought a bottle of 'Nutrafin African Cichlid Conditioner' that claims to increase general hardness and create optimal mineral balance for african cichlids. Will tis be all i need to add to the water for the tangs?

 

[phOOey]

i started out with 3 in my 5g and ended up with well over 30 in my 29g after just 3 months.

i think it was orion who was saying how his small group of adults were creating more fry than his larger group. so maybe only getting a few to start with is best.

 

[Orion]

Hey Karma, whats the latest update?

Personaly I use baking soda and epsom salt to buffer my water up. Kind of a pain to get the formula figured out, but once you do it gets easier. My local water supply keeps swinging from moderately hard, to flat out soft with pH running anywhere from 6.9-7.9. Most likley this has to do with the turn over of the lake. It does make it a bit more chalanging keeping the water buffered, but with smaller weekly water changes, it doesn't fluxuate too much.

And yes, I was getting a much higher survival rate with only one mature male in the small colony. My larger colony recently lost the second male a few weeks ago, and already I have seen a population explosion with one male and 6 females.

 

[karma_llama]

sorry about the lack of updates recently orion, i've just started a new job (at a childrens farm!) and have had a not so nice episode of heat stroke (british weather warmed up and caught me off guard!). But i do have some news, and pics!.

I got my tanks full of water now with the substrate in etc. The 60gal community has natural gravel in and two pieces of bogwood, but remains plantless as of yet. Here is a small pic to give you an idea - nothing special yet though.

I've had some luck with my tang tank however, i decided that the 29 gallon tank i was going to use was a bit too battered and i didnt trust it in the long run. So i looked on ebay and managed to grab a Fluval duo 1000 with light-glo hood (complete with huge air pump and loads of test kits) for just £16. This tank works out at aboput 40ish gallons, now my shellies have a mansion!!!

The photo below was taken about 1/2 hour after i set it up so the water is still cloudy from the gravel. I've used ordinary play sand, some tiny gravel and an assortment of shells. I hope to collect some rocks for it from croatia and have a pair of julies in there aswell perhaps.

Feedback greatly appreciated

Am going to leave the tank to cycle and get my fish the week after my holiday (so 2nd week in august) I can't wait!!!

 

[Orion]

Sorry to hear about the heat stroke. Thats never a good thing. Drink plenty of fluids!

A childrens farm? Do you keep them in the barn most of the time, or let them out in the pasture some during the day? lol

Sounds like you got a great deal on that tank. What are the tank measurements?

If you are going to get some mutlies, you are going to need a lot more shells than that. They prefer shell beds (ie: lots of shells piled up in the same spot). But you've got plenty of time to get more.

 

[karma_llama]

I know what you mean about the fluids, my parents were literally force feeding, or should it be force drinking, me with huge glasses of water, and i just wasnt thirsty, no fun.

lol at the childrens farm, i'd never thought of it like that, i'll have to point it out next time i'm in work!

The tank measures 100x40x40 cm, approx 39x15x15 inches i think. I was a really great bargain, i dont think the guy really wanted to sell itme that cheap but he had to honor the ebay rules, not that i minded The lot he sold me included the tank and hood, an interpet master test kit, two siphons/gravel vacs, two tubs of in-date food and about five bottles of water treaments. Oh and i nearly forgot, there was also an automatic feeder in there that is specially designed to fit in the hood of this tank, and the best bit is that the feeder box still had a price ticket of £19.99 on it!! I got the whole lot for only £16, the guy made such a loss!

As for the shells I do have a load more but i didnt put them in as i wasnt sure how many they needed but now you've said i'll go throw another couple of handfuls in.
I think when i've got my rocks i'm going to do something similar to your tank, with rocks on one side and shells on the other, this decoration was just temporary really so i could see how it looked.