# pics of shellie or julie setups?



## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

Just curious to see some pics of these tank setups...........im thinking of doing a shellie (multie or occie) and julie (dickfeldi) setup in a 20g long (currently setup and ready to go) or i might swap that to a 29G......would that work in the 20 long? would it be better to switch to the 29G?

Thanks......
Robb


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## TabMorte (Feb 5, 2008)

A 20G long and 29G have the same footprint (or the ones I was looking at today did!) so if you're going with shellies the extra height might not help so much.


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

If the rocks are piled high, then the extra height might help the julies. My multies use the entire height of my tank, although it's only 18" tall.

















I ended up moving some of the shells forward to keep the multies from harassing the julies too much. My julies are j. Transcriptus.


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

Laurel said:


> If the rocks are piled high, then the extra height might help the julies. My multies use the entire height of my tank, although it's only 18" tall.
> 
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> ...


Thanks.....great setup....... :thumb:

what size is that tank? and how many shells per shelly? three?

Robb


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## MidNightCowBoy (May 7, 2007)

My 55 gallon Tanganikya Tank with loads of happy multies. It's like a darned multi orgy in there I tell ya! :lol:


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

TrashmanNYC said:


> Laurel said:
> 
> 
> > If the rocks are piled high, then the extra height might help the julies. My multies use the entire height of my tank, although it's only 18" tall.
> ...


I have 5 multies, and 13 shells. I'm going to get rid of the biggest multie who's been harassing the julies too much. I'm pretty sure he's the big bad male, but if one of the 4 others aren't males, I'll find out when they stop having fry, and I'll know to get a new one.

It's a 29 gallon Oceanic Biocube, but I think the actual volume is closer to 24 when you calculate the wet/dry portion. The usable area for the fish is about an 18" cube.

Here's how it looked minus the java fern. I think it really made a huge difference!


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## philjo1 (Jan 16, 2007)

This is mine from a while ago.. More shells now.










Cheers
Phil


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

Here is a pic of my multi and julie 30 gal. Sorry for the pic quality, can't seem to hold the camera still...
Rocks on one side, shell bed on the other.
I had to plant "visual barriers" because the multis are all over the aquarium bothering the julies.
The plants dividing things up a little has helped some.
Hopefully I can rearrange the plants when things settle down.
Also, there are some orange glow danios I thought I'd need as dithers to draw out the fish. 
It seems they are unnecessary... :roll: 








Alicem


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

Here's my 20 long dedicated to breeding my J. transcriptus. Since moving them to this tank last month, they've trickle-spawned constantly... How many fry can you count? :lol: They were breeding in my community tank, but the fry stayed hidden mostly, and were predated on heavily. The parents have bred in, on, and under the conch shells, being much less secretive than they were in the community tank. The pair uses the whole tank because they can, and if I had my multies in there, they'd be more on edge.


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## daffodils (Mar 10, 2008)

I notice that a lot of you have live plants in you tang tanks. I was told that live plants and african cichlids don't mix, maybe lake tanganyika fish are exempt from this rule? What are your thoughts???


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## daffodils (Mar 10, 2008)

TrashmanNYC, I really like your tank. Good Work!


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## TrashmanNYC (Dec 10, 2007)

Laurel said:


> TrashmanNYC said:
> 
> 
> > Laurel said:
> ...


the plants make it look a lot better :thumb: 
so do you think julies and shellies would work together in a 20g long?


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

TrashmanNYC said:


> the plants make it look a lot better :thumb:
> so do you think julies and shellies would work together in a 20g long?


I don't know. Mine are still working that out themselves. I was told that it could, and to go with smaller julies(transcriptus, ornatus). The multies pick on the julies and ended up killing a smaller one. I'm gonna try to get 3 more to hopefully build a pair that will get bigger than the multies and stand up to them.


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## drewslootdc (May 15, 2006)

Here is my 55 shellie
I can't get the pic. to post right here so here is the link
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/tanks/disp ... tank=16906


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## MidNightCowBoy (May 7, 2007)

As far as live plants go, The statement that african cichlids (or just cichlids in general) and plants don't mix is overused, too general and just not true. Sure some cichlids will tear up plants but some won't. There are lots of people keeping plants with many different types of cichlids. None of the fish in my tanganikya tank bother the plants at all, but I've kept fish that will destroy any plant I put in a tank before as well. It all depends on the type of fish.

Bottom line is people that say cichlids and plants don't mix don't really know what they are talking about.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

It could also be they are talking about a biotope. Lake Tanganyika has plants only in certain areas, and I believe some of the fish we like to keep live in those areas only as fry.

My mbuna nibbled my plants and I didn't like the tattered look. But my carnivore Calvus leave them alone, so that's working.


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## ME_AND_GREENTERROR (Jan 21, 2008)

all of your tanks are beautiful.. so i was wondering... i know i posted this on another but if anyone can give me a pair of multie i will buy them from you ..


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## pcrawford1044 (Apr 19, 2008)




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## pcrawford1044 (Apr 19, 2008)

my occie gold pair


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## pcrawford1044 (Apr 19, 2008)

sorry the top 2 pic are of my multi. tank


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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

I like where this thread is going. I currently have a 20 tall with an uncountable number of multies in it and have been wanting to try my hand at some Julies. At the moment im leaning towards J. Dickfeldi, but they are kinda hard to find and when I do find them at my LFS they are like $16/each for juvies.

So I think i may end up ditching my multies colony (i have to move twice in the next month and a half) and I was thinkin about setting up either a 40 breeder with julies and Lamprologus meleagris, AKA â€œpearly occelatusâ€


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## JohnnyD (Feb 25, 2003)

My favorite tank. I post crappy photos of it all the time. Bought it used 10yrs ago so it's pretty worn, but made a great test tank for my first DIY background. It now houses:
Left side: L. caudopunctactus breeding pair
Center: N. similis colony (1m 5f countless fry)
Right side: J. transcriptus "Zaire Black" breeding pair with 12-15 juvies
Throughout: Syno. petricola & Cyp. leptosoma "Mpulungu"

Sorry for the crummy pictures, but it gives you an idea for what's going on.


































If I were you I'd go with N. similis instead of multies. Nearly identical behavior & requirements, I just think similis is a much nicer looking fish.


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

Where do you guys buy your shells?


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## JohnnyD (Feb 25, 2003)

Crafts section in Walmart sells bags of maybe 10-15 usable shells for <$5. It's a mixed bag so not all are appropriate, but compared to $1-$2 per shell at my LFS, it's a great bargin.

Lots of people also buy escargot shells from local restaurants.

Word to the wise....I had 100's of shells in my 55g piled at least 2 deep for a "real shell bed" type setup but found that managing the nitrates became unreasonable because so much detritus builds up between the shells. I have since gone to a single layer with probably 6-10 shells per fish in a smaller colony-style layout.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

I had my multies and julies in the same tank for a while. The julies would take over the shell bed as well and the multies never spawned. Since I separated them, the multies are making up for lost time and the jilues are out an about all the time as well as the multiple broods of fry hanging out.

the multie tank

















and the julies in their half of my 30g


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## Rick_Lindsey (Aug 26, 2002)

MalawiLover said:


> the multie tank


How many shells do you have in there?

-Rick (the armchair aquarist)


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## Hyperion (Dec 2, 2007)

Cook.MN said:


> Where do you guys buy your shells?


I've used these guys multiple times and they always ship clean nice lookin shells. Plus the price isnt bad and they have tons of different types to choose from.

http://cichlidbreeding.com/products.php?cat=10


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## 1fishkeeper (Apr 7, 2008)

Well I thought that I would share my "Gold" occlie tank with everyone on here. Its not the perfect set up but I enjoy it and they seem to really injoy it so I guess that is the point. I have added alot more shells in there since the pictures were taken plus alot of them got baried in the sand.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

Rick_Lindsey said:


> MalawiLover said:
> 
> 
> > the multie tank
> ...


I think its something like 30-40. I bought 10ea of Gold mouth turbos and silver mouth turbos and somthing like 20 whale eye shells from www.cichlidbreeding.com. I most of them ended up in there. The fish love it. They breed non stop.


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

does anyone know how many Occies you can keep in a 20L?


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## Darkside (Feb 6, 2008)

F8LBITEva said:


> does anyone know how many Occies you can keep in a 20L?


You can keep a single male and his harem, up to 3 females in a 20 long.


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## Hoosier Tank (May 8, 2007)

Here is my 29g 18 shells for only 5 L. ocellatus (blue) also have 1 J. marlieri and 2 Juvinile A. Calvus (black)


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