“Multifasciatus” specific tank in progress !!

[rockarolla70]

Hi folks,
As I mentioned earlier that a 39" long "Multies" tank was getting ready, finally done with it. Running the tank for one week with my previous multi's matured tank media. Presently have a very uneven ratio in my 10-gal tank (6 males + 3 females), I was waiting for my LFS to source more females. Today got a word from the LFS that they have procured a stock 8 females + 2 males for this project of mine.

Tank Dimension
- 36" (Width) x 13" (Depth) x 12" (Height)

Water Volume
- 100 liters (approx)

Filters (HOB)
- AquaClear 20 + AquaClear 30

Scaping
- Natural River Rocks (handpicked for this)
- 100% natural Play Sand + Nile Sand
- Escargot shells - 72 numbers (in-stock) yet to be added.

What I need help is ... for this above project how many males & females would do ?? Any other suggestion from you folks are most welcome.

 

[tigerbob]

This tank with the scape looks way larger than it actually is. Can't wait to see how it looks when fish are in.

 

[rockarolla70]

Thanks !! will keep the thread updates accordingly. Is there any suggestion you would like to make on the shell placement which will be populated in the tank ?? I would like to leave the extreme left side of the tank empty without shells so if at all the colony grows I can later put some shells to that side of the tank.

I also would like to you know if any suggestion / opinions can be put in for the lighting of this tank. I am blur as of now.

 

[tigerbob]

Thanks !! will keep the thread updates accordingly. Is there any suggestion you would like to make on the shell placement which will be populated in the tank ?? I would like to leave the extreme left side of the tank empty without shells so if at all the colony grows I can later put some shells to that side of the tank.

I also would like to you know if any suggestion / opinions can be put in for the lighting of this tank. I am blur as of now.

I haven't kept multifasciatus before so have no experience to speak of, but I think the shells can be put in place now and the fish will set up their territory naturally.

 

[deeda]

Nice to see you are finally getting the new tank set up!!!

I would lose some of the rocks since they are not really needed in a Multie set up OR you can stack a pile of the rocks on one end of the tank and spread the shells around the rest of the tank.

I've never been too concerned with the male to female ratio though obviously you would want more females than males. ?

 

[rockarolla70]

Nice to see you are finally getting the new tank set up!!!

I would lose some of the rocks since they are not really needed in a Multie setup OR you can stack a pile of the rocks on one end of the tank and spread the shells around the rest of the tank.

I've never been too concerned with the male to female ratio though obviously you would want more females than males. ?

Firstly thanks for the reply Deeda.
- Firstly I wanted to have these rock arrangements and see how it work with the multie's, and as they dig a lot I had to glue these rocks to the tank base ?
- Secondly later in the coming years if I change my mind to make this a tank for another cichlids tank (single species) then these rock arrangements might work (I presume)
- Finally, I too am not so keen on male & female ratio but just wanted to have more females as it is a general suggestion by every multi owners. However, I saw my new bach of multie's which has arrived at my LFS & they are way too smaller than the batch I have now in my 10gal tank. Due to the size in the new batch it is difficult to make out which is a male or a female so I am going with all the 10 (new batch) + 9 (old batch) once they grow up a bit if the there are more males then will give a few of them away to my LFS who have multi specific tank on display for some store credit.

 

[DJRansome]

The fish would not be able to dig under a rock that was placed directly on the glass. The digging problem is when people put the rocks on top of an inch of substrate.

 

[james99]

I think the rocks look good, even better once you fill is the bottom with all of the shells. It adds more to look at since they are higher up.

 

[rockarolla70]

I think the rocks look good, even better once you fill is the bottom with all of the shells. It adds more to look at since they are higher up.

Yes I will be populating 50+ shells tomorrow, will post a pic once done. The pic below show in what line I will be populating the shells. Any suggestion/opinions are welcome.

 

[rockarolla70]

Folks,
Below are the 2 pics with shells. Finally released the fish a while ago.
- Took me 3 hours to get 9 adults from my 10gal out of their shells, I used the breeder box removed the net so the multi's swim down to the bottom. 5 was a breeze but the last 4 never came out of their shells.
- I had to cut open the shells, I took the chance hoping the multi's will not go deep into the shell, they did go way deep inside, had to cut the shells till the very end and managed to release them without hurting.
- The worst was 2 multi's in one shell, they are stubborn and never what to come out.
- As of now the tiny ones are doing good and none of the adults are harassing them.
- But what I observed is even though it's a big tank & up to 60 shells still the adults squabble for shells/territory, one was getting harassed so had to move him to extreme corner of the tank with some shell for himself.
- I still have some 20+ shells, do you think it's good add them too ??

Will post the update by tomorrow again with the pics of the multi's.