Eclipse tank for shellies

[Jtsky]

Would one of the marine land eclipse tanks be ok for keeping some kind of shell dweller? I was thinking the 6 or the 12 gallon. Would I need the 12 or would the 6 do? Would this be enough room for some type of shell dweller? How many could I keep? What type of shelly do you reccomend to get? I already have cichlid experience. I have a 55gal with malawi's in it at my dad's house but my mom really isn't a fish person so If I keep it small and simple I think she would consider it more. This is my reason for wanting the eclipse setup. That and the looks.

[merlyn2221]

I think this is a great idea. Stick to only one variety that stays small.

Some cute little N. brevis will be very interesting and comical at times, besides, the males are only 2" when fully grown. In a tank that size you could keep two males and about 5-6 females with at least 10 shells of different sizes on a sand bottom. These fish are easy to care for and cool to watch. This type of tank would be easy to fit in with any color scheme too (on a more "mom-like" note).

[Jtsky]

I was thinking multies but I think I will take whatever type I can find at the lfs as long as they stay small. Why would you reccomend n. brevis over multies? Are you saying that number of fish in a 12 gallon? I am looking at the 12g. I was thinking starting with maybe only 3-4 so that I could keep some fry and watch them grow up. What do you think about that? What else would I decorate with? I was thinking sand bottum, and like this with "@" being a shell area "/" and "\" being rocks and "p" being plants.

@/@\@
_p__p_

would this be an okay setup? I was just trying to somewhat seperate the shell area's. If this wasn't necesary I would prabably design it differently. Do they need to be seperated by something or can they just be a space apart? Do you know any good links about keeping the fish happy in a small tank or pictures of the fish or tank setups?

[Jtsky]

Could I also add some kind of fish that would take care of some of the fry? I am not sure what I would do if they all the fry lived.

[crazyfishlady]

I am a fan of Lamprologus Ocellatus. They get to 1.5 to 2 inches. If you kept 1 males & 3 females in a 12 you would have fry. They will take pretty good care of them.
I started with 4 & now have 21 + a brand new spawn that looks like only about 10. I call them the rabbits :)
I love these little guys they are pretty aggressive with each other, doing the chasing & displays, & I can't help but think its adorable that my little 2" fish are the only ones that swim up & bite me while I'm doing tank maintenence :D
My set up is in a 20 long.
Choosing your tank, I would go with whichever one has the most floor space. I'm guessing the 6 is tall?? So I'd go with the 12.
I do have rocks dividing areas of shells from each other. So a spawning pair has some kind of landmark that they're happy with keeping an encraocher behind. I don't know how far they'd chase without the rocks there.

[Jtsky]

Could you do a quick drawing of your setup with the keyboard? What do you reccomend as a fish that would snack on some of the fry but would stay small enough to fit the tank. Could I put some kind catfish in their to do that? What else could I do with the fry?

[Jtsky]

Also, how much do you pay for multis? If my lfs charges to much I might just buy 2 and breed to fill it up.

[Eddiefebuary]

I was thinking of doing this. I was wondering if I could put a catfish in there with them also and if anyone has a suggestion of a peaceful midwater or topwater fish that I could add also.

[finz]

Jtsky, a 12 gallon is a good size for shellies and you really enjoy watching their interactions. In that size tank I would only recommend one pair of occelatus if you go that route. 3 females is fine in a 20 long but they will likey fight constantly in a 12 gallon. Brevis are a bit more peaceful and would be great in that size tank as would a trio of Multies. Here is a pic of my 10 gallon Brevis tank.

http://www.cichlidforums.com/postimages/2004-01-25/25631-001.jpg

The rocks are glued together with aquarium silicon cement so they wont fall.

[Jtsky]

Are brevis the ones that share shells. If they share shells couldn't I keep more of them then if they each have to have their own shell/territory. So I could prbably keep 4-6 brevis or only about 3 multis. Is that right? It is just going to depend on what they have at the lfs unless they have both. Then I might get brevis because you said I could keep more. I am not sure though because I read they are more aggresive than multis. If the lfs has multis My plan WAS to get a m/f pair and keep some of the fry. I'm not sure what Im going to do now though.

[crazyfishlady]

Very cool tank setup finz! I don't have a picture of my L. Ocellatus setup right now, but I'll try to draw it. O's representing sandy areas with shells & /'s representing rocks to divide up space. In a 20 gallon long. rocks are pieces of slate standing on end embedded in gravel & sand so they won't fall over, usually only about 6" high.

O /O/ O / O
O O O O O o

So If a pair wants to breed & defend a territory they usually choose on their own to use a shell thats isolated & defend that area, while overall the tank is pretty open. A day or 2 after hatching the fry will spread out in that area, using 3 or 4 shells to hide in while the parents continue to defend that zone of the tank. The whole front of the tank is very open.

[Jtsky]

I bought the 12. Got everything I need besides deco and fish. Still not sure how many I can house in there. I think that because brevis share shells I could have more of them than If I got something that the m/f have seperate shells because of territory related things. Is that correct? Also, I was thinking of just buying a pair of whatever I decide to get and let the fry grow up and poulate the tank. I thought this might be a good idea because I thought the parents wouldn't mind their own babies living close to them. Also, do you have any close up pictures of shells they like?

[SGypsyMermaid]

finz--you never cease to amaze me! beeyootiful!

jtsky--i know that the multis don't mind the other fry when they get ready to spawn again, but i'm not so sure about the other shellies...especially those feisty little ocellatus aka 'fishichihuahuas".:razz:

[Jtsky]

Ok, so I guess I will either get a trio of multis or 4 brevis.

[jonah]

I don't know if my male brevis would be normal, but he eventually ended up eating his fry. The multis I keep however completely ignore the babies in the tank. Multies appear more bold in behavior too.

[finz]

Brevis and occelatus will both eventually kill their fry when they get old enough to be a threat to newly hatched babies. Multies live in colonies with the older fry helping to protect the territory. Brevis frequently have smaller territories than occelatus but the fact that males and females share a shell probably has nothing to do with it.

[crazyfishlady]

That has not been my experience with ocellatus. I currently have the original 3 parents that I bought, plus, now about 19 more at different sizes from 4 different spawns, and now about 10 more from a spawn that just hatched. The parents are guarding the newest fry, but not killing anything. If you want to set yourself up as a breeder this is not the way to go, quite a bit of natural culling occurs. This is just how my colony has worked out. Things are starting to get crowded, so I'll probably bring a few from the 1st spawn to the LFS, & maybe start doing a few trades to keep the gene pool from getting to shallow.
Very easy. I tried separating some fry from the rest of the tank with one spawn, and separated them from the parents also & they wound up stunted.