# New shellie/community tank



## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

I've always wanted to try my hand at keeping shellies before, but I never was able to set up a tank for them. I got into marine tanks a couple years ago and that's consumed most of my time, now I've decided to take a well needed break and start an easy freshwater tank. I have a 55g that's empty and I want to turn it into a lake tang community tank. I have been away from freshwater though for awhile so I need some help getting this right. 
I definately want to have a colony of multies, probably 6 or soto get started. After that, I have no idea what I should add to the tank. I have a small-ish budget, so for a school(s) of open water fish if cichlids are too expensive I was thinking I would go with rainbows. So any suggestions as to what fish besides the shellies I should keep? Also, where might I find multies and other cihclids online? I have tried SOOO hard to get them through lfs locally, without any luck. I actually met one of the distributors for our area and he said he'd get me some, but I never heard back from him. 
One more question. I previously had this tank set up with pool filter sand. I loved how cheap it was and easy to clean, however it was REALLY sharp and I'd prefer not to use it again. What kind of sand would you reccommend? I was thinking some kind of aragonite-like sand would be a good choice since it'll help buffer the pH right?

thanks :thumb:


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

Play sand will work as well. You have to wash it quite a bit but it is not as sharp.

Rainbows would be fine  Sometimes online you can find Cyprichromis for 7 dollars so. About the same as what you would find rainbows for at an lfs.

Some types of Julidochromis... such as ornatus, dickfeldi or transriptus should work out fine in this tank.

Other possibilities would be some calvus or comps.

Take a look at some of our site sponsors. There are only a couple of Tang dealers... but I've had fish from most of them and I've gotten all quality fish.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Thanks 
I found a place that I might order from, I'd probably be able to get most everything I want from one place then. (www.davesfish.com)
I like the following fish, are they ok with eachother? How many would be ok to keep in the tank? (I'm not looking to go overboard but just looking for how many would be appropriate)
Julidochromis transcriptus Kissi Bemba
Altolamprologus calvus Chaitika 'White'
Altolamprologus calvus Congo 'Black'
Those plus 6 multies and a school (~6) of rainbows.

Also, I was worried about the pool filter sand being too sharp for the fish, if that's not a problem I think I'll save some money and pick up some of that.


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## Longstocking (Aug 26, 2003)

Yes they would be fine together.

Pick one of the Calvus as they can cross breed.

In terms of numbers .... start with something like this...

6 multies
6 Calvus
6 trascriptus

Then once the fish mature and pair off.... you should be looking at something like this...

Pair of multies
Pair/Trio of Julidochromis
Pair/Trio of Calvus

Pool filter sand is fine.... play sand is fine. Play sand is cheaper but a lot more cleaning is involved.


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## Multies (Mar 9, 2007)

it could be alot of multies in the end. 
how about some paracyps? cyps? you might be able to get some cheap if you find a local breeder.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Well basically I really just wanted multies, and the tank would be boring to look at without any other fish, so I figured some tanganyikan cichlids would be neat to have with them. I just remembered I know of a breeder locally so I'll see if he has anything. If it gets too complicated or expensive going with all cichlids I might just get some schools of standard community fish like rainbows and tetras. :roll:


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## Jago (Oct 5, 2007)

I plan on setting up a 55 for multies in the near future. They are one of the best fish I've ever kept. I currently have 11 with their stripes and probably 50 or so quarter inch to inch long stripeless guys swimming around a 15 gallon.

My plan for the 55 is to get 200-300 shells and just let them go to town. I might make a very vertical rock pile or two for some small julies. Dickfeldi always caught my eye. But I want to make sure the multies get as much floor space as possible.

For the open space I plan on some type of cyprichromis. Some rainbows would make a nice possibly less expensive alternative. I don't know much about rainbows but if you can mix different colored species that would look real nice. Maybe some nice tall valisnaria planted in the background with rocks placed around them to keep the multies from digging them up. So many ideas so few tanks.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Well maybe I'll do just plain multies and rainbows then. Idk, I'll have to decide on something :?


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## Jago (Oct 5, 2007)

dorymarlin955 said:


> Well maybe I'll do just plain multies and rainbows then. Idk, I'll have to decide on something :?


Just putting multies in the tank makes it fantastic


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Well I set up the tank today, it looks great! Pics tomorrow if I can remember.
I'm using an old canister filter that I bought from a reefkeeper locally, it works great but every once in awhile it slowly gets air in it and get a little noisy.

I found a few rocks that I cleaned and placed in the tank. I'm hopefully going to add some vallisneria to give the tank some height. Tomorrow I might be going out to an lfs to pick up a school of rainbows or something else, I realize the the tank was just set up, and I know I shouldn't use fish to cycle the tank, but the filter media is "seeded" from another tank, and I'm adding a small amount of fish to a large volume to build up the bacteria.

Also I just bought two large bags of moon snail shells from ebay, I couldn't find any escargot shells very cheap there so I settled for the others. In a few weeks I plan to get the shellies!!

Also when I go to the lfs tomorrow Im going to try and find some kidn of cichlid buffer to up the ph, since I think my tap water is normally a tad low for them.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

What is the pH of your tap water. A tad low might be preferable to buffering because consistency is more important than perfect pH. Mine is 7.8 from the tap for example, and I don't buffer.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

It's about 7.6, is that too low?


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

I got a school of 12 harlequin rasboras and a group of 6 rummynose tetras today. They settled in really fast and look so cool swimming across the tank in schools. The lady at the store said she'd look into finding me some multies, although for the past two years she's been saying the same thing. :roll:

I'm still looking for a couple vals to give the tank some height, but I think it looks pretty nice so far


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## Josh_McFadden (Jul 5, 2004)

Lookin good, I think you need a background too.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Well personally I like the stripe on my wall as a background, so long as I keep the glass spotless


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

I'll most likely be ordering the multies from Dave's, so I was looking to see what other fish they have that I might want. Would it be ok to have 2 synodontis? If they'll be ok in the tank which species would be better?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I've read on this forum that Synodontis will bother the multies. I was advised not to add them to a shellie tank.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

yeah that would make sense...


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## VT4Me (Mar 23, 2008)

Rummys love acidic water; quite the opposite of tangs, with something around 6-6.5 preferable. They may be ok in your tank but they won't thrive and are very susceptible to white spot.

If you can swap them out I would. They are great looking fish when the noses are bright red but I don't think they'll ever look their best in your tank. JMHO anyway.

Good luck with the new tank. Thinking about some multies myself.


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

*** got Rainbows with my shellies and all is *GREAT*!


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

So the rasboras are ok though? I tested the pH again after the fish have been in there a bit and it's lowered to 7.4-7.5. Right now, the tetras look fine and are showing their colors really well. Do I need to raise the pH any more, or is this going to be ok for the multies? pH of my tap water is 7.6.


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## h0nkzz (Dec 27, 2006)

the rasboras are okay. I kept 20 of them with my Multifasciatus colony, no problem.


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

Well I found someone on Aquabid who's selling 7 for $54 (that includes shipping), and I think I'll snag them. So,, that would probably mean I'll be getting the multies next week! The tank now has about 50 shells in it, I actually have about 100 more that were extra. The water's a bit cloudy for some reason, also I had to add the filter with the skimmer attachment on the right to get rid of the surface film, I've never had that problem before either. Anyway here's some pics. 
























anyone know what this plant is?
:fish:


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## dorymarlin955 (May 30, 2007)

:dancing: Sweet! Shipping only ended up being $10, AND the seller is sending 7 or 8 because of a mishap in the description (so I'm ending up with 7 or 8 for $38) :dancing:

Yesterday I got 6 algae eating shrimp from the lfs, although one of them turned out to be a ghost shrimp... I go tthem to, well, eat algae. I'm hoping they won't be bugged too much by the multies though.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Oh the Malawi eat the crustaceans when they molt, are the Tangs better about this? And the crustaceans try to eat the fish the rest of the time. Plus how are ghost shrimp in the high pH?


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