Help with L. signatus

[aharris]

Hey, I couldn't resist picking up a trio of these at my LFS today (along with 2 shells we couldn't get the females to vacate).

I've done an internet search and can't find much about them.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom here?

Thanks

[Xxzsdrklakdfj]

sup,
i have a pair of F1 L.signatus in a 10gal. by themselves(well besides their 30-40 f2 fry) L.signatus isn't actually a shelldweller though it's a mud dweller. In the wild they dig tubes of mud that they live in, but they can't dig tubes out of mud in a sand or gravel subtrate aquarium. Don't worry i only had shells for a long time and they NEVER stopped them from breeding. I would say though that you would definately need to buy more shells. In my tank i have a sand subtrate so i got a 4-5in pvc pipe with an opening slightly larger than the snail shells and siliconed sand all over the tube so it looks natural but I still have about 10 shells in there and a few plants.

don't be suprised if your signatus are very timid for awhile. I had mine for 2 months before the female would stay out when i walked up to the tank. Still today the male darts in his shell when i walk up to the tank(but at least now he comes back out in a few seconds instead of 10-15min,lol)

Breeding this fish is very easy. I didn't even have my pair for 3weeks when i saw a 20some f2batch of fry!!!then i get a few more about every 10-14days.

And the fry raise up very easily. I don't know how it would be with the nonparentel of the 3 but my pair never bother the fry and the older fry don't bother new fry so i just leave them in the tank and just put in extra amounts of food when i'm feeding the parents for the fry to eat and then the parents eat what the fry can't off the sand in a matter of minutes.

Speaking of sand, I would definately recommend goin w/ sand. or IMO you'l be missing out on a great deal of their behavior. Mine dig small pits all over the tank. And I have a few pieces of pretty fine gravel in their that i guess were stuck to the glass or something whe i did the switch to sand, and it seems as if these 5or so little pieces of gravel allways stay above the send even with the constant pits that appear and then suddenly vanish over night and every once in awhile they just constanly go from each of the few pieces of gravel and move them from place to place as if decorating their series of shells and pits they call home, so a few pieces of gravel may prove to be very entertaining if your harems behavior is like that of my pair!

This fish doesn't need to much food either, so i tend to stick to a twice a day feeding schedule vs. a 3-5time for mbuna and larger tangs.

Well hope i've helped ya in some way and i think you'll come to find that these little tangs. can prove to be very entertaing!!they are in my smallest tank but they are by far my favorites!!!

-"letters"

[aharris]

Yeah, the substrate I'm using is a fine silica sand-blasting stuff. They're constantly moving it all around. And the female(?) has lived in every corner of the tank for at least a day before moving on. She digs under rocks or hangs out in shells; it doesn't seem to matter to her.

Do these guys live in colonies or just in pairs?
How big will they get? Mine are about 1" right now; I seem to remember the fish atlas saying 2-3".

Although, the PVC idea sounds neat, and with Home Depot down the street, I may look into that.

Thanks

[ET69]

I have about 20 of them living in a colony in my 40 gallon aquarium. Lots of shells, lots of sand and a couple of pl*cos to keep the whole thing clean.

The parents of these fish I kept in a smaller aquarium in a pair.

Seems to work either way.