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I know we do not have many shellie keepers on this site but if you are out there can you step forward?

I am thinking of converting my 4ft at home into a shellie tank.

Of course I STILL haven't converted my 1.5ft desktop into a multi tank yet. (don't want to set up and then shift it when i change jobs)



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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

I havent posted in a while but ill add 2 cents for ya.

4ft tank will open up options for cyps for the top portion of the tank giving it more depth. but the bottom line comes down to this. what do YOU want. Me personally I had multis in a 10g and went oh hell ya and dumped $100 on a 30g breeder tank with 110 escargot shells. Plenty of space for the 8 fish lol.

If you truely like them then i say go for it. Spend some time on a background get a good layout on it and make it into a show tank. Dont just toss it together there is no rush know what im saying. do it right the first time and be sure you want THAT many multies and it will turn into everything your after

just a side note a 4ft tank is long enough you might even get 2 colonies to form. this will add to the fun

The biggest question is, which shellies? Because several of them, the male gets rather large and would do better in the larger tank. However, most of the shellies everyone has or keeps, will do just fine in a ten gal tank. So in the end, it is mostly up to you.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Acidrain I had multis in mind for the 1.5ft desktop number

The 4ft would be a whole other world opening up for stock choices.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Multis would be perfect for that tank. They stay small and tolerate conspecifics very well. But, they also spawn quite redily, so I would be prepared to be removing some fry and new fish out of there to other tanks. Other wise you may become over stocked in a short period of time.

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There is always a bigger fish...

the little tank has multies in it.

Another option for the 4ft from a shellie keeper please? ... list of stock if poss.... not that I am an expert on shellies, I would have to look most of them up.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

A 4ft tank for just shellies would be good but making it into a pure Tangynikan tank would be better as the shellies only usually come to the top of our tanks when we put the food in.

You could try Occelatus or Brevis as 2 different species to what you already keep but check up on the behaviour of each species.
Occies are fierce little things with some serious bottle and love to spend their days squabbling and bickering amongst themselves, males like a territory of approx 10cms around each shell to call their own, females will need to be kept apart so spreading shells over the entire bottom of the tank in groups would solve this - after spending hours digging and shifting a chosen shell around our males do this fascinating jiggy dance to the choice female then if/when she goes in the shell he'll keep her prisoner until she's bred - then when there is a brood she'll chase him off but he'll still be on guard duty close by - they also tolerate the fry and will only kill fry off if there's no room for more;

Brevis aren't so fierce but ours like a shell each, they haven't bred yet so I can't help anymore on their familiy structure as I've not experienced it yet;

Multis are colonial and each fish also needs its own shell;

All our Occies and Brevis are in with other Tangys and just to watch a 3cm male Occie take on and win against something 10cms big never ceases to amaze me - our other fish learnt not to go near that shell pretty quick

Here's a useful list for you:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=14

For other tankmates nowadays you can get some lovely types of Cyprichromis Leptosoma which would use the top half of the tank.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=7

hey wish-ga,

just got ur PM (even tho u sent it over a year ago!), sorry i havent been on these forums for a while have been trying to reply it but it keeps sending to fail! will try again later.

yeah i have poo loads of escargot shells if your still interested. also have multis, gold occies, black occies and stappersi/meleagris. i'm might be selling some of them if your interested. all would do well in a 4ft so it comes down to whether u want pairs/harems or a community.

i've got my 4ft covered with shells and set up with multis. really cool to watch them interact in such a big community but its pretty difficult to get food to the fry and even more of a pain if you need to catch any of them!