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Ok, i posted last week about putting africans in a 29 gallon but have now changed my stance. I have just acquired a used 10 gallon tank and i am now thinking of using that for Shellies. From reading another thread i've concluded that "Multis" would work in a 10 gallon. If so are they easy to find in fish stores? How many for a 10 gallon? What water chemistry is best for them? And lastly, where the heck do you get all those shells for them and what size do they need to be? Do i cover the entire tank with them? Thanks.

I have not kept these guys yet, but am considering them as the next thing to do in my 10, so have read up on them a bit.

You may be lucky to find them in a good fish shop or perhaps they could order some in for you. Better yet, check out your locak fish club as someone is likely to be keeping these cuties. Escargot shells work fine - safe to use for preparing people food means they have not been coated with toxic sealants as many decorative shells are. Buy new ones and boil them for a few minutes to be sure they are clean. Have at least one shell per fish. Set them on sandy substrate. They prefer some hardness in the water. Not soft and acidic.

You want a small group, one male and several females. They're harem spawners and young males will be tolereated until they get too big at which point, the dominant male will try to send them away.

I can tell you that they will quickly outgrow a 10g as they are very prolific breeders. I started off with a handfull in a 10g and now I have multis out the wazoo. I personally have not seen any multis in the LFS in all the ones I have been to in this state. Good luck!

It depends on your Lfs personnaly my lfs carries almost all the fish you would want except the extremely rare species however some stores carry only the most common of species such as livebearers. I would suggest Aquarium Adventure if you live in the north eastern US area.

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