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I want to get four shellies for a 10 gallon tank I'll be setting up soon. The problem is, I don't really have anything I can do with the fry. I don't think I can really sell all kinds of fish out of my dorm room. What are some options, or could I just get all females?

The good thing about shell dwelleres is that they raise the fry and dont require seperation like other cichlids, if you only had one or two pairs of shell dweller (neolamprologous caudopunktualis is my fave) you could raiser the fry and sell them to a willing lfs. what type are you going to get?

So a simple 10 gallon would be enough to have maybe three females and a male and also raise the fry in it? I know they're very good at taking care of their fry, but I didn't know if my space would allow. All we have is Petsmart, and I don't know if they'd just buy them from me. If not, what then? Could I just get four females?

I'm just going to get whichever kind my LFS has. If none, I want multis or the gold variety of Lamprologus ocellatus. What do you think?

A 10g is fine for some cichlids

Multies and possibly similis are the best choices, as they set up colonies.

Male occies-and the similar speciosus and stappersi-are very, very protective of their territories...it's generally recommended to give them a minimum of 6" around his shell. That really doesn't allow for more than 1 male in a 10g.

I keep multies, stapps, and brevis. I purchased an adult pair of brevis and have them in a 5.5g I have gotten so many fry from them I had to set up a separate 10g grow out tank.

Unless the shellies your lfs has are fully grown they're a bit difficult to sex. If you went with multies you could just start out with 3 if you wanted. An important thing to remember with multies (and similis) is that they don't like substrate, so just a bare minimum is required. They do however do best with lots and lots of shells; my 10g multi tank has ~50-60 whale eye shells.

They really are fascinating little fish

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