Tanganyikan 200+ community stock

[bobblehead27]

Just personal preferences/experience. I tried to keep shellies with my some of my calvus in the past, but things didn't go too well for me.

My dominated male yellow calvus got curious about my gold ocellatus pair and decided to check them out. The male ocellatus started guarding his shell and nipped my calvus a few times. Guessed my calvus got fed up, and just engulfed the ocellatus male. Spat him him out minutes after all tattered up.

After that experience I just kept my shellies in separate species only setups. Easier to collect their babies this way too

You can try housing them together, but I just thought I give you a heads up. I do know some hobbyist who have successfully housed them with other tangs with no problems though. Maybe just a little bit of bad luck on my part.

Another issue I ran into was the shellies not being able to compete with my larger tangs for food.

See that's why I was hoping to find a shell dweller that acts like multies but gets bigger. So the comps can't take an adult down

 

[Pred-Finatic]

See that's why I was hoping to find a shell dweller that acts like multies but gets bigger. So the comps can't take an adult down

Yeah definitely know what you mean. Altolamprologus.compressiceps "Sumbu Shell" are a very nice dweller, if you can find some. A local cichlid specialist store in my area had some, but they were gone fast.

There's Neolamprologus.callipterus if you're looking for size. Males reportedly get around 6".

 

[bobblehead27]

Yeah definitely know what you mean. Altolamprologus.compressiceps "Sumbu Shell" are a very nice dweller, if you can find some. A local cichlid specialist store in my area had some, but they were gone fast.

There's Neolamprologus.callipterus if you're looking for size. Males reportedly get around 6".

I really like the sumbu dwarf but don't like that idea with other Altos.

The callipterus seem awesome. But they seem like they need a species tank or something absurdly big to have proper breeding behavior exhibited due to their aggressive behaviour size and huge harem sizes. That's why I was thinking something that forms colonies like multies where the previous generations protect the younger generations.

 

[Allan01230]

Wow with a 200 gallon tank I would look into petrochromis species

 

[viejafish]

Is the OP talking about having 200+ gal tank for shellies?

 

[bobblehead27]

No. I would just like shellies in there. I want a tanganyikan community. I'd like Altos shellies some sort of sand dwellers cyps and maybe Julies or leluipi if I can. I'm just here for
ideas of shellies that act like multis but get slightly bigger so Altos don't try to eat it
Ideas of sand dwellers (I was thinking xenotilapia papilio)
And to see if it is doable

 

[bobblehead27]

Wow with a 200 gallon tank I would look into petrochromis species

From what I just read (having no knowledge of them before) they are extremely aggressive and would do best in a species only tank.

 

[DJRansome]

You don't want leleupi with shellies...leleupi kill the shellie adults as well as the fry. Voice of experience, I tried it against advice.

 

[bobblehead27]

You don't want leleupi with shellies...leleupi kill the shellie adults as well as the fry. Voice of experience, I tried it against advice.

OK I thought of had heard something about that a while back but couldn't remember.

 

[303mfk]

What about opting on the shellies and doing sandsifters? They are beautiful when adults and display some of the most interesting behavior ive seen in any cichlids. With a tank that size they would make some awesome pits..just my 2 cents lol