Howdy all,
Someone on the CA/SA Cichlid board was looking for something small for his son's 29g and L. occie was suggested. I looked up what it was and became fascinated with shell dwellers. While I think a few other shell dwellers look nicer I've settled on multies.... plus my LFS actually has them.
From what I have gathered I should be good to go, but I wanted to get some input here first. My plan is to use a 20L with an AC50 filter, 1-2" of sand, escargot shells, an a pile of pagoda rocks in the middle with anubias 'nana'. The rocks will buffer my water an act as a barrier, in theory.
My questions are:
1) Has anyone noticed any negative effects when using black sand with multies? One picture I saw the fish looked black, almost stressed looking.
1a) How deep a sand bed do I want? Was thinking 1.5-2" but I've seen a few people say their multies liked less sand then more.
2) Bare with me on this one, but If I set the tank up with two piles of shells and a territory divider in the middle (the rocks) then get 2 males and 2+ females for each one will I have enough space for additional groups to form? Basically how many males and females can a tank this size support territory wise. I've read they only use about a 6" radius so I figured 2-4 small groups, depending on the shells available.
I think that's it, here is a picture I made in MS paint to give you an idea of what I'm babbling about
Thank you.
Someone on the CA/SA Cichlid board was looking for something small for his son's 29g and L. occie was suggested. I looked up what it was and became fascinated with shell dwellers. While I think a few other shell dwellers look nicer I've settled on multies.... plus my LFS actually has them.
From what I have gathered I should be good to go, but I wanted to get some input here first. My plan is to use a 20L with an AC50 filter, 1-2" of sand, escargot shells, an a pile of pagoda rocks in the middle with anubias 'nana'. The rocks will buffer my water an act as a barrier, in theory.
My questions are:
1) Has anyone noticed any negative effects when using black sand with multies? One picture I saw the fish looked black, almost stressed looking.
1a) How deep a sand bed do I want? Was thinking 1.5-2" but I've seen a few people say their multies liked less sand then more.
2) Bare with me on this one, but If I set the tank up with two piles of shells and a territory divider in the middle (the rocks) then get 2 males and 2+ females for each one will I have enough space for additional groups to form? Basically how many males and females can a tank this size support territory wise. I've read they only use about a 6" radius so I figured 2-4 small groups, depending on the shells available.
I think that's it, here is a picture I made in MS paint to give you an idea of what I'm babbling about
Thank you.
