# L. Multifasciatus territory establishment....



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

So I added some more shells to the tank this morning and moved things around a little to help re-establish the new territories. Well it's certainly entertaining, not too much in the way of physical contact but lots of very funny flaring and shimmying at one another - seems like they want to spawn pretty soon.

I caught some of the initial quarrels before things settled down and thought I'd share them. Don't worry, I turned the lights off when things got too excited.




























The victor, scathed but all the more resilient for it:









:fish:


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## MidNightCowBoy (May 7, 2007)

Multis make for a very active tank. Mine are constantly quarreling with each other and defending their territory from my 2 calvus. I've never had any injuries. I used to think of them as a colony but now I really think they are a gang!


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Heh they are pretty cool little guys. The tank is located opposite my couch so they keep me laughing.

Here's the tank:









It's a bit different now so when it gets darker I'll take an update (too much glare during the day).

The above shots aren't the best - I should have used a flash but I was enjoying watching them too much to go get it - settings as follows for those interested:

ISO 1600 (hence grainyness)
s/s 100th
f/5
MF
18-55mm (stock) lens
Canon 20D

I've got a video I'm editing so I'll post that up in a while.
:thumb:


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## redzebra24 (Sep 28, 2005)

Nice pictures. Your aquascaping is SICK! :thumb:


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## NateDogg (Apr 24, 2005)

awsome pics!


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

excellent pics, I love your tank.


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## Paleo fish (Feb 21, 2008)

Great pics :thumb: I hope to get some Multies soon.


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## KoenEeckhoudt (Oct 28, 2007)

very nice pics, and thx for the cam settings as well... 

I'm gonna give it a shot myself with those settings ^^

Thx!

Koen


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Thanks for the nice compliments everyone.

Radek, long time no speak bro, how's business?

*Koen* - those settings aren't really preferable if you can help it. I only shot with those settings as it allowed me to use the tanks lighting (11watts). Obviously you can still get a decent image out of it but it just isn't as crisp as it could be. Normally I would try to shoot with an ISO of 100 and a smaller aperture - ie. f16 but obviously a lot more light is needed for this. The flash I have is a tiny Rollei flash, so for me taking flash photography is really awkward as I have to hold the flash in position with one hand, whilst changing settings and shooting simultaneously with the other :lol:. Not the easiest way of doing things, a credit to the camera though, it is quite easy to operate single-handedly.

Here's a shot using the Rollei flash and the following settings (from memory)
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/ ... yhole3.jpg
ISO 100
s/s 160
f14

The image would be further improved by using a flash from the front to fill in - this would have got rid of the distracting shadows on the fish. To do that I would use the on-board flash and I step down it's intensity a little (until it looks right) - otherwise the side of the fish is too strongly lit and as our eyes are used to seeing light sources hit objects from above, it looks somewhat less natural.

If you have access to a semi-decent external flash and you can mount it, you could take some great shots, I'm at a point where I feel limited in what I can capture with my flash (really short lead on it - I'm telling you it must look hilarious when I try to capture stuff at the bottom of the tank - out of reach of the cable), but it keeps me entertained and that's all it needs to do until I can set myself up properly.

It would have been better if I'd shot the multies at ISO800 but it was more important to have faster shutter speeds as they were tussling and even at 1/100th sec things were blurry. More about capturing the moment, than the capture itself .

Anyway here's a short video of the usual Multi tricks:
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/ ... AUGCKY.flv


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## wmayes (Oct 22, 2007)

Is the video taken from the side of the tank? I think I may have already mentioned this to you but I'll just reiterate it: this may well be one of the best looking shell-dweller tanks I've seen! :thumb:

Can't wait to see those updated pics!


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## Paleo fish (Feb 21, 2008)

Nice video!! :thumb: But what was that cichlid the multie was biting?


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## wmayes (Oct 22, 2007)

The only other fish I saw in the video was a Julidochromis and I don't recall a multie biting it...


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## KoenEeckhoudt (Oct 28, 2007)

he tried to


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Thanks!



> Is the video taken from the side of the tank?


Actually that's it, the whole tank - the Julie shouldn't really be in there. Apart from the occasional edging back and forth they're doing fine - this is why I've created the new scape to suit both species territorial needs until I get more space sorted.

I've got a 40 gallon that I want to turn into Tang heaven, but I can't come to terms with selling/giving away fish very easily so once I've got my head around that the plan is to expand - I grabbed this Julie up because nice ones are hard to come by and so I'll be looking to add a few more (to the 40) to get a pair when I can. Final plan is colony of multies, pair of julies, maybe some paracyps, aqua-scaped like this tank but with better open boundaries between rock and shellbed. I've just got to get it past the gf.....

:lol:

Yup that Multie is the quietest and most docile of the lot, but it's the only one that will chase off the Julidochromis like that, very funny to watch.


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## wmayes (Oct 22, 2007)

The tank is beautiful. Perhaps you should just do something completely different with your 40. 
I'm going to the one of my LFS today just to take a picture of a small show tank that they have.

Oddly enough, it has multies two beautiful but miniscule calvies (one black, one white) and a pair of something else which I can't remember...

It's really quite a great tank. They siliconed round fist-size to football-size rocks together vertically in a very odd but natural-looking way to create a sort-of wall in the center of the tank going long-ways with gaps between the rocks going through to the back of the tank... Hopefully they'll let me take a picture... I've been meaning to for quite some time. It might be just the thing you need to do to accomplish that 'boundary' between the rocks and the shellbed.

Would you like me to PM you the pictures if I can get them?


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Sounds cool, hit me up with a pm! :thumb:


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Updated tank shot:









:thumb: or 

I preferred it before but this works a lot better for the territorial needs of the fish (for now).


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

The previous hardscape looked more natural ... but of course what matters is the fishie spats.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

:lol: Tell me about it.


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Great tank Blair :thumb: You made a realy nice aqua scape and it does look great :thumb:

Sorry bud but you can't convince me of getting Tangs :wink: I'm more of an SA guy I guess with plants and driftwood. But I realy like this small tank, that I have to admit!


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## Paleo fish (Feb 21, 2008)

I still think it looks great :thumb:


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Oh, I'm not saying it doesn't look good ... I just prefered it before hand. I am with *Dutch Dude* though, I would add anubias at the very least. Not very biotope of course, but I feel the need to add green to my tanks. :lol: For some reason a tank doesn't look complete without some green in it. Even if anubias and java fern is the only thing I can keep alive. :?


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

:lol: I am like that too, it's almost my mantra... A tank just isn't a tank without plants....

But, I like to try and keep an open mind, stick to trying something new and I'm actually really enjoying it so far! I'm not bored, yet - :lol: that's a good start as normally by now I've wanted to re-scape for my tastes, not the fishes. This new scape does bug me but it's working so perfectly I don't want to disrupt it. The only plant I'd add would be Vallis. and I might do it, I might not.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

Yeah, some vals in the back left corner ... tall in the corner getting shorter as it heads towards the rocks could be cool ... would be hard to balance with the rocks though. Might be worth a try.


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