Gold occie tank size

[TaratronVaeVictus]

I recently came upon a great deal with gold occelatus shelldwellers, and have them in a 10 gallon QT tank right now. Obviously for 7 occies of mixed sex, this is a poor size tank. I do have a 20 gallon long, and a 55 gallon setup in the garage just waiting to be set up and filled with water. I am leaning toward the 55, power with sponge filters, toss in a few dozen shells and hopefully let them breed! I don't think I want any other fish in the tank, save perhaps some bristlenose plecos for cleanup, since I do want a good amount of fry.

I've only kept multis and brevis as shellies before; how does the above tank sound for occies?

 

[mike dunagan]

55 will work.

 

[iamzrad]

I have 4 occie's (1m, 3f) in a 15gal tank and they do just fine. They do not get very big (<3"). So a 55gal would be perfect. Just use aragonite sand as a substrate, with plenty of shells, almost quadruple the number of fish.
Interesting little guys, very stable and protective of their shells.

 

[Muske]

The 55 should have enough room for some Cyps. up top.

 

[CichlidsRool]

here do something like this looks pretty nice..

 

[fishkeeper1]

im pretty sure all of those tanks would work but the 55 is the best option no doubt. Occies are like multies just occies are lore aggressive and territorial. So you have to seperate shells in clusters, say 5 in one corner, 3 in another corner, 6 in the other corner you get the idea.