Shelly tank help

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sascythe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 11, 2008
110
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northern ohio
Was wondering what to spend xmas money on and ive been doing some browsing and figured i would make a small shelly tank. i want to put them in a 30g. but was wondering if i should go sand or gravel. and if i go sand what type of filters should i get? and fish whise i was looking at calvus but i dont know if any of my LFS carry these but they do carry some kind of dwarf cichlids for $5 but they dont give a specific name... but i was wondering if anyone had any tips cuz these shelly tanks look awesome.
 
well for starters is it a 30L or a 29g ?? either way if you get shellies it should be big enough, sand is by far best for shellies, cant say much about filter till i know which tank, i dont keep calvus but i dont think they are actually shellies, for example in my shellie tank i have pearl ocellatus, and orange belly brevis

and you will probably have to rule out lfs for these guys, look online, aquabid where i got mine
 
Sand is the only option for me when it comes to a shellie tank. The shellies like to bury their shells in the sand. If you go with gravel they won't be able to move the gravel around. Mike is right, there is one type of compressicep that is a shelldweller. Its called a dwarf comp.
Lauro has some gold ocellatus shellies for sale in the FS section. He's got a good price on them and shipping is available. The ocellatus shelldwellers are my favorite........:grinno:
 
in a 29 you can still have a pair of ocellatus and they really are a blast to watch. you can add some schooling fish to take up the middle/top to take up that part of the tank. I used to have halfbeaks with mine
 
ok sand is a def. then. and im going 29g. and im gonna go from the lamprologus family i think thats right. there all shell dwellers. so ive never done sand before. anyone got any tips on what kind and what filters go with it? and i can only keep a pair of these in the tank? is it because they are agressive when they have a mate around?
 
i have 5 brevis and 8 pearl ocs in a 20 long which is the same footprint as a 29, so you can fit a couple in there
 
The main thing ive noticed that eases the aggression is to have at least 5 shells per fish. Also get a big rock or a few big rocks and place it in the middle with your shells on either side. This way you create 2 territories that the fish can retreat to their area and you also break up the line of sight doing this too. They absolutely love digging up the sand.
 
awesome they sound fun like i was hoping! and i just got my 29g with a whisper 30 filter some big stones a bunch of decorations off craigs list for $25. i was siked itll give me a head start on the things. except they left the tank really scummy so gotta clean it up first. but thanks for the help i really appreciate and will a whisper 30 be good enough for thsi setup? and doesnt matter on type of sand?
 
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