# Shellies Setup



## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

I am getting ready to set up my first shellies tank. I am debating between a 30 breeder 36x18x13 or a 33 long 48x12x13. For stock I want to have 3 or 4 little groups.

Option one: 
Alto Comp single
Paracyprichromis Nigripinnis pair
Neolamprologus Buescheri pair
lamprologus Brevis small group

Option two:
Alto Comp single
Neolamprologus Gracilis small group
Lamprologus Similis small group

How do these look two look? I would most likely section the tank off into three sections. 20+ Shells in each end of the tank and a tall rock pile in the center. I would leave plenty of sand spacing between the rock piles and both groups of shells.

Anyone have any suggestions?


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## Jarrods (Sep 11, 2011)

I had a 30b with similis and calvus and paracyps which was a cool tank but I was never getting fry out of either the 10 odd similis or 7 paracyps (all adults) as the calvus were eating them all. Ditched the calvus for a very interesting tank. Definitely doable and better in a 4' tank too.


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## lufbramatt (Jun 6, 2011)

If you want any fry ditch the compressiceps. They will try to eat anything that fits in their (huge) mouths and are specialized hunting machines. I think 4 tang species is a bit much for a tank that size. If you can go for the 48" long tank you'd probably be ok with a shellie, a rock dweller and some cyps (need lots of swimming length). Unless you have a 5ft+ long tank I'd try to avoid more than one species for each type of territory. I have two "groups" of brevis shelleis in a 90 and still get some bickering between males despite the shells being a fair distance apart.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Although the 33 breeder is 4 ft., unless Cyps are the only fish, I find it not tall enough for Cyps. So option one without the comp if you want fry, and Paracyps are best in a group of 6-8.


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

So what would be a good mix of 3 different types....1 shellie, 1 rockdweller and 1 open swimmer species? and what tank size? I think a 40 long or a 40 breeder would be the biggest tank i would go with though. I want to keep the aquarium all native to tang other then a small pleco.


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## ILCichlid (Feb 27, 2012)

I'd go for the longest tank you can so the 40 or 33 long. If it were me, I'd go with Brevis, Julidochromis marlieri, and one of the Telmatochromis species like Vittatus or Bifrenatus (Very fun to observe and highly underrated in the tang community)

I currently have a 30g with brevis, Vittatus, and Brichardi but the Brichardi can get a bit aggresive so the Brevis and vittatus will be moved out soon. Might be different if it were a longer tank.


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

40 long is a beauty tank size IMO. I think a standard 55 is just too high for the 12" width. See my sig for what I have in my 55g I think I could easily cut 1-2 species and be fine (read: be better off)
Calvus, shellies, cyps in a 40long or paracyps in place of the cyps, I think would work. I have a 40L setup as SW I should have swapped the tanks.


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## Tropheus311 (Dec 28, 2011)

I have a setup somewhat similar to the one you're interested in setting up--standard 30 gallon, rock pile in center, and 3 sections of shells (as opposed to the 2 sections you had in mind). I have 72 total shells, with about 10 in the center (below the rock pile), and the rest equally split on the sides. I started out with 6 multi's, 2 red lufubu comps (2.5" male; 2" female), 2 dwarf bristle nose pleco's, and 8 fireline danios (as the dither fish). The multi population has now turned into a true colony with each of the 3 shell sections occupied. All others are doing fine, except the red lufubu female was bullied by the multis before I had a chance to remove her (the male staked out the main cave created by the rock pile). The male red lufubu, about 3 times the size of the largest multi male, keeps to his cave and will occasionally venture out. The nearest multi male keeps him away from a shell pile near the cave entrance, but I've seen the red lufubu quickly dart down and snatch multi fry on occasion (very quick; it's cool seeing the natural behavior). I've had this setup for about 3 years now with no problems (aside from the female red lufubu casualty). The red lufubu male keeps the multi population in check and it works (at least on the one side of the tank; the multi colony on the other side continues to grow).

I wouldn't add any other tangs to this setup, but you probably could add one other smaller tang species to your setup with the shelldwellers you listed (that don't breed as prolifically as the multi's).


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## Lushaquatics (Sep 15, 2013)

Oh I'd say option 2 ! Gracilis are definitely a better bet as the Gracilis are a little less aggressive... Maybe keep compressiceps shell instead, or just leave out the altos altogether.

I'm actually going to be setting up a shelldweller tank for the first time as well... Going with a 55gallong tank housing (Lamp Similis, Lamp Caudopunctatus, and possibly Telmatochoromis brichardi, or a dwarf Julie such as Gombe) I was wondering if you can house a second shelldweller species in a 4' tank if you have 3 different shell piles.. But I'll start another thread for that !


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

Lushaquatics said:


> Oh I'd say option 2 ! Gracilis are definitely a better bet as the Gracilis are a little less aggressive... Maybe keep compressiceps shell instead, or just leave out the altos altogether.
> 
> I'm actually going to be setting up a shelldweller tank for the first time as well... Going with a 55gallong tank housing (Lamp Similis, Lamp Caudopunctatus, and possibly Telmatochoromis brichardi, or a dwarf Julie such as Gombe) I was wondering if you can house a second shelldweller species in a 4' tank if you have 3 different shell piles.. But I'll start another thread for that !


Hey, the more info the better! I'd love to know the answer to that question as well. Can you keep two varieties of shelldweller in a 4ft tank?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I have been advised to have a 72" tank or larger for 2 shellie groups, and make one established brevis so you can put their shells up on a shelf away from the others.


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## Lushaquatics (Sep 15, 2013)

I've been trolling on youtube watching videos of other people's Tanganyikan aquariums, and I've seen a few examples of 4' - 6' aquariums housing 2 - 3 different shellie species...

I don't know how that'd work longterm though. I'm a seasoned vet with Malawi, but as far as Tangs go I admit I'm a rookie


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

Tropheus311 said:


> I have a setup somewhat similar to the one you're interested in setting up--standard 30 gallon, rock pile in center, and 3 sections of shells (as opposed to the 2 sections you had in mind). I have 72 total shells, with about 10 in the center (below the rock pile), and the rest equally split on the sides. I started out with 6 multi's, 2 red lufubu comps (2.5" male; 2" female), 2 dwarf bristle nose pleco's, and 8 fireline danios (as the dither fish). The multi population has now turned into a true colony with each of the 3 shell sections occupied. All others are doing fine, except the red lufubu female was bullied by the multis before I had a chance to remove her (the male staked out the main cave created by the rock pile). The male red lufubu, about 3 times the size of the largest multi male, keeps to his cave and will occasionally venture out. The nearest multi male keeps him away from a shell pile near the cave entrance, but I've seen the red lufubu quickly dart down and snatch multi fry on occasion (very quick; it's cool seeing the natural behavior). I've had this setup for about 3 years now with no problems (aside from the female red lufubu casualty). The red lufubu male keeps the multi population in check and it works (at least on the one side of the tank; the multi colony on the other side continues to grow).
> 
> I wouldn't add any other tangs to this setup, but you probably could add one other smaller tang species to your setup with the shelldwellers you listed (that don't breed as prolifically as the multi's).


Can you post a few pics of your setup please. This past weekend I was given a 30 gallon 36" footprint and was thinking of setting it up quite similar to yours. I have 36 escargot shells around 2" and 20 tonna shells around 3" with a nice size rock pile. I was thinking to add a few small fake plants and maybe one piece of driftwood for my pleco. What do you use for filtration on your setup? Where did you get your shells from?

Thanks Lukas


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## Pseudeotropheus BB (Jan 24, 2013)

The Neos you have interest in are very aggressive and may be a little too much for the shell dwellers, I believe there are better options. I am not sure how you feel about pairing the Brevis/Similis with Caudopunctatus and one of Juli Transcriptus/Ornatus. I personally have housed this trio in a 30G with tremendous success.

If you are looking for a Neolamprologus some of your best bets would be Niger, Mustax or one of my favorites Ventralis Kasanga. The Mustax is the most readily available of the three however if you can get your hands on some Ventralis that would be a nice score.


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## Tropheus311 (Dec 28, 2011)

I'm using a Fluval 205, purchased the escargot shells from Amazon (after reading reviews with many recommending them), have a simple, slimline 3D background from Designs by Nature, and also have a piece of driftwood that I failed to mention setting a boundary on the left side of the tank. I'll try to post a few pictures this weekend. This was my first Tanganyikan setup and the only thing I'd have done differently is use less sand (the multies pile it up in different formations every day).


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

Someone in my area is looking to sell a colony of similis there are 9 of them + 10+****, ratios unknown includes 20 shells for $75....think I should do that?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

If they came from a good source (where did the seller get them?) and are being sold with the scientific name and collection point it would be a good deal.


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

This is what he said when I asked him where he got them from. "I had the original colony but split them up (sold off pairs) and kept some **** & one pair. now they are grown and have formed a nice breeding colony." Not so sure if it's worth $75 if its growout inbreeding with each other. He's also supposed to be sending me pics this weekend so I'll post those soon.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Growout and inbreeding is not a problem. What vendor sold him the original colony (don't name the vendor here)? Is that vendor reputable? What is the collection point?


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

Unfortunately he bought them from another guy who ordered them offline. He doesn't know which supplier or where they came from before that. Here are the few pictures he sent me.


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

Here's a few pics of the setup so far! I'm thinking of getting occies now after doing more research and looking at the stocking at my lfs. Should I do a pair gold occies or 4 pearlys, could I do both? Would anything else fit with these fish?

I used aroganite for the subsrate and there's 12 shells in the picture but I added 6 more to the center pile afterwards.

Bottom Tank


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

More Shells!


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## Tropheus311 (Dec 28, 2011)

Nice, clean layout. I agree, a handful of additional shells would look good (not too many if you're keeping the occies though).


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I would have only one type of shellie in the tank.


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

So I ended up getting both the gold occie pair and the 4 lamprologus meleagris. The gold occies have the center shells occupied and the meleagris on the right side. I also put one small 1.5" alto comp in there to keep the population in order. So far everyone is still finding their shells but I don't seem to have any aggression issues other then the usual shellies behavior. There is now a total of 24x escargot shells in the tank and 1x 3" tonna shell that was claimed by the alto comp already. I have a 10g sitting empty near by in case I need to pull any fish.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

You mixed two very similar species. Gold occies were hard for me to keep in pairs, so I would have done a trio at least. You won't get aggression typically until 2-4 weeks after everything has settled down. I would not be surprised if those two species will cross breed, so I would not distribute fry. There would be no way of telling if the parents were the same species or not.

Sorry for the negative post, but that is just not a great mix.


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

ahud said:


> You mixed two very similar species. Gold occies were hard for me to keep in pairs, so I would have done a trio at least. You won't get aggression typically until 2-4 weeks after everything has settled down. I would not be surprised if those two species will cross breed, so I would not distribute fry. There would be no way of telling if the parents were the same species or not.
> 
> Sorry for the negative post, but that is just not a great mix.


I understand where you're coming from. I don't plan to keep them together if the tank aggression gets out of control and I also don't plan to keep the fry. That's why I put in an alto comp to eat some fry and hopefully to keep the population down. I bought the gold occies from the owner of the pet shop and he had the pair together for a long time with no issues, hopefully it stays that way!


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

What is that plant?


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## ldregz (Jun 25, 2013)

skurj said:


> What is that plant?


Marineland 3-foot Artificial Bamboo Plant


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