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i dont really know anything about these fish. are they the same thing? or am i completely off? can you mix different kinds of shellies?

oh also, are shellies ok by themselves or do they need other shellies? like could someone theoretically put a shelly in with a couple other dwarf cichlids or whatever else works? or is that asking for disaster?

Last edited by devon7 at 24-Oct-2004 02:01

Last edited by devon7 at 24-Oct-2004 02:02

Hi there Devon;

'Shellies' is a generic term for the various different species of small cichlids from Lake Tanganyika in Africa, who use old snail shells as little houses. 'Multies', or Neolamprologus Multifasciatus, are one of these shellie species.
Shelldwellers need to live together; some species live as pairs (a male and female) and some live together as a small colony (one male to a few females). Multies live as a colony. They really would not do well at all kept alone in a community tank, and would probably die fairly quickly from stress and other environmental factors if forced to live in this kind of situation.
Some species of shellies can be kept in the same tank as one another; but not as single fish (e.g one each of different species) and they also need room away from one another. Being cichlids they are still aggressive towards other fish coming near their territory, despite their relatively small size.

x

thanks thats exactly what i wanted to know