Are Shell Dwellers High Maintenance?

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Razor7Music

Razor7Music

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 18, 2008
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Irvine, CA
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Hello--

After having a successful Malawi tank for almost 7 years, I've traded it all in for a Tany tank. I'm setting it up now and deciding on what I want to go along with my cyps.

I've got a bit of store credit at a LFS that just got a pair of paracyps blue neon and a bunch of shell dwellers.

My tank will have large rocks are caves for the paracyps, but I'm going with a crushed pooka shell substrate, so I don't know if the shell dwellers will thrive/be happy without fine sand.

The cyps are the main fish, so it's a matter of what goes well with them, vs. the other way around.

What do you think of blue neons and shell dwellers? It's a 56 gallon show style tank.

I'm going tomorrow or they'll be gone.

Thanks,
 
Cyps and shellies would be a great mix! I have had good experience with both. The cyps really encourage the shellies to come out and be about. Use sand as substrate though and put escargot snails for he shellies. The pooka shells are a but too small for them.


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Oh the pookas are crushed up for substrate. I will get the right shells for them to live in.

I was asking if they will be happy without fine sand substrate.

Thanks

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Yay shell dwellers :3 always wanted them but I have my Malawi cichlids now....waiting till I move them to the 110 gallon. We need lots of pictures ��
 
They will be happier with sand, but crushed pooka shells I don't think will do them any harm. Sand is just more natural I guess for the shellies and cyps


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I started taking a few pictures of the process. Hoping the cloudiness will be gone by tomorrow. I did the major washing job, but those pookas were dusty :-(

Wonder what would happen if I put the fish in there while it was still a little cloudy?
 
Wouldn't hurt them a bit. Shellies like a lot of shells (more or less depending on the species). They are pretty low maintenance for the most part. I had multies and the only problem I had was too many babies lol. They are fun fish to keep and watch. What species are you getting?

Both Cyps and Paracyps are shoaling fish; you're going to need more Paracyps (preferably female if you have a male already). Six would be a good number, more if you want. Same goes for the Cyps. BTW, how long is that 56 gallon? Cyps like a tank at least four foot long.
 
I'm brand new to Tany fish so I don't have the names down yet. I just know the LFS named off about 6 or 7 different species that he just got in--so that got me all excited.

My tank is a show tank so it's taller than it is long or deep. It's about 3 feet wide. It was all I could fit when I first bought it.

I like to know what ideal conditions are and what are going to harm the fish and come as close to ideal as possible. I had a very successful Malawi tank for almost 7 years using that principal--so it sounds like I'm not going to be able to offer an ideal setting, but we'll enough for a successful tank.

I'll post back what I get and some pics. I was very pleased to see the water is clear this morning! :-)
 
Cyps wouldn't thrive in a tank that size but Paracyps would. Paracyps, one shellie species, and one of the dwarf juli species would be great in a tank that size. Also altolamp calvus or comp would probably work well. Probably just be under what a goby would want but not totally sure in that.
 
I got them! Wow, I had to use restraint not to get more than just 2 species. I thought it might be hard to get them later...but I did. I have some photos of my tank setup, and I'll post those later, but the shellies are about 1 cm and very hard to photo.

I got 2 Lamprologus ocellatus, and 2 Neolamprologus similis. I gave them multiple shells and placed them on opposite sides of the tank. The similis are acting like regular cichlids and swimming around running things--they don't seem to have the slightest interest in the shells.

I also got a pair of Golden Wonder Killifish (Apolcheilus lineatus), and a pair of Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (Kambwimba) blue neon. That'll be it for quite a while. It's pretty funny that I have these tiny little baby fish in what looks like a giant tank, but I read up and I know how large they will get. I think the wide-open space is making them all very bold. After having large adult Malawi's, from a distance, it looks like I have a tank with a few sea monkeys in it!

They are all full of personality. I won't mention the funny things the shellies do now, but what is funny based on what I read, is that the female golden wonder killifish likes to come down and hang out with one of the ocellatus--kind of fun to watch fish grow up together and end up tolerating each other once they're adults.

Anyway, I'll probably not add the cypes until April, and then maybe just a pair. They are hard to get out here. :-(

Pics later!
 
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