# "Multifasciatus" specific tank in progress !!



## rockarolla70

Hi folks,
This is my 39" long "Multies" tank whihc was getting ready, finally done with it. Running the tank for one week with my previous multi's matured tank media. Presently have a very uneven ratio in my 10-gal tank (6 males + 3 females), I was waiting for my LFS to source more females. Today got a word from the LFS that they have procured a stock 8 females + 2 males for this project of mine.

Tank Dimension
- 36" (Width) x 13" (Depth) x 12" (Height)

Water Volume
- 100 liters (approx)

Filters (HOB)
- AquaClear 20 + AquaClear 30

Scaping
- Natural River Rocks (handpicked for this)
- 100% natural Play Sand + Nile Sand
- Escargot shells - 72 numbers (in-stock) yet to be added.

What I need help is ... for this above project how many males & females would do ?? Any other suggestion from you folks are most welcome.


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## DJRansome

Welcome to Cichlid-forum!


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## sir_keith

I wouldn't buy any more Multi's; I'd just add what you already have to the 39L, or maybe just 3 males and 3 females. Multi's are truly the 'just add water' Tanganyikan, and within a few months you will have more Multi's than you know what to do with. You will definitely need to add lots of shells, because they will bury most of them! Enjoy! Multi's are fun!


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## rockarolla70

DJRansome said:


> Welcome to Cichlid-forum!


Thanks DJRansome !!


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## rockarolla70

sir_keith said:


> I wouldn't buy any more Multi's; I'd just add what you already have to the 39L, or maybe just 3 males and 3 females. Multi's are truly the 'just add water' Tanganyikan, and within a few months you will have more Multi's than you know what to do with. You will definitely need to add lots of shells, because they will bury most of them! Enjoy! Multi's are fun!


Hi Sir_keith, I have 10 gal (3 months old) presently with the 3 females + 6 males (old batch) & they are fully grown & have 36 shells (most of them buried). However trying to get the ration reversed 1:3 females so that it might encourage them to spawn. I know that 10 (new batch) & 9 (old batch) together in the new tank will be too may I know but the new lot of 10 multie's which are at the LFS where most of them are just half-an-inch or bit less than that which is making it difficult for me to identify the gender by their size & shape. So will put all of them together for the time being and later after month once they grow I will be able to make out the males ... if the ratio of males are high then I will remove the males to maintain the ration of 1:3 females. With what I have understood is that introduction of new individual/s once the colony is setup & boundaries are drawn can have an adverse effect leading to clashing whereas removing a individual/s should not be problem. Correct me if am wrong.


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## Iggy Newcastle

I concur with sir_keith: just add your lot to the new tank. Or just a 3:3. Your last message was difficult to follow concerning the LFS stock. They told you they had more females for you, but all the fish are 1/2?" You can't reliably sex them at that size.


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## sir_keith

rockarolla70 said:


> sir_keith said:
> 
> 
> 
> I wouldn't buy any more Multi's; I'd just add what you already have to the 39L, or maybe just 3 males and 3 females. Multi's are truly the 'just add water' Tanganyikan, and within a few months you will have more Multi's than you know what to do with. You will definitely need to add lots of shells, because they will bury most of them! Enjoy! Multi's are fun!
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Sir_keith, I have 10 gal (3 months old) presently with the 3 females + 6 males (old batch) & they are fully grown & have 36 shells (most of them buried). However trying to get the ration reversed 1:3 females so that it might encourage them to spawn. I know that 10 (new batch) & 9 (old batch) together in the new tank will be too may I know but the new lot of 10 multie's which are at the LFS where most of them are just half-an-inch or bit less than that which is making it difficult for me to identify the gender by their size & shape. So will put all of them together for the time being and later after month once they grow I will be able to make out the males ... if the ratio of males are high then I will remove the males to maintain the ration of 1:3 females. With what I have understood is that introduction of new individual/s once the colony is setup & boundaries are drawn can have an adverse effect leading to clashing whereas removing a individual/s should not be problem. Correct me if am wrong.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a perfectly good plan if you are set on adding new stock from the LFS. I don't think you need any more fishes to get a breeding colony going, but it's never a bad idea to start out with fishes from multiple sources so as to maximize genetic diversity. Have fun with your Multi's, and post a pic for us once they are in the 39L!


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## rockarolla70

Folks,
Below are the 2 pics with shells. Finally released the fish a while ago.
- Took me 3 hours to get 9 adults from my 10gal out of their shells, I used the breeder box removed the net so the multies swim down to the bottom. 5 was a breeze but the last 4 never came out of their shells.
- I had to cut open the shells, I took the chance hoping the multi's will not go deep into the shell, they did go way deep inside, had to cut the shells till the very end and managed to release them without hurting.
- The worst was 2 multi's in one shell, they are stubborn and never what to come out.
- As of now the tiny ones are doing good and none of the adults are harassing them.
- But what I observed is even though it's a big tank & up to 60 shells still the adults squabble for shells/territory, one was getting harassed so had to move him to extreme corner of the tank with some shell for himself.
- I still have some 20+ shells, do you think it's good add them too ??

Will post the update by tomorrow again with the pics of the multi's.


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## Deeda

I would add the remaining shells to the tank so they are in groups or clumps.

I'm not sure why you needed to cut apart the shells to remove the Multies, why not just move the shells over to the new tank with the fish?


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## rockarolla70

Deeda said:


> I would add the remaining shells to the tank so they are in groups or clumps.
> 
> I'm not sure why you needed to cut apart the shells to remove the Multies, why not just move the shells over to the new tank with the fish?


Deeda, the previous tank had some algae growth which did not wanted to transfer it to the new tank. This was the only reason, however I managed to get all of them safely into the new tank.


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## DJRansome

Definitely add more shells. There is an article in CF on how to unshell shellies. If you had known about that, you could have cleaned the shells and still added them.

The new tank will get algae as well unless you have changed something.


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## rockarolla70

Folks,
Now I have an issue on hand, till afternoon none of the adults were bothered about the new batch of smaller multies. Since evening two of the adult females from the previous batch (I had only 3 female) are chasing away the smaller multies. I have put in more shells (in total 91 shells) and have let them sort it out for themselves. Cause some times it's difficult to understand the dynamics of the lot


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## DJRansome

IME when I added all new similis with some much smaller than the others...the littlest one chased the second littlest to the surface relentlessly for several days. Toss up whether I would be able to get the fish out in time, or I would lose the fish.

It just stopped.

Unless the fish was forced to be all the way up at the surface, I would wait.

Multifasciatus easily like 100 shells.


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## rockarolla70

DJRansome said:


> IME when I added all new similis with some much smaller than the others...the littlest one chased the second littlest to the surface relentlessly for several days. Toss up whether I would be able to get the fish out in time, or I would lose the fish.
> 
> It just stopped.
> 
> Unless the fish was forced to be all the way up at the surface, I would wait.
> 
> Multifasciatus easily like 100 shells.


Thanks DJRansome for the suggestion, I will throw in another 10 or 15 shells by tomorrow. As you said I home eventually they will stop harassing the little ones, pretty sad state to see all of the huddled up into one corner of thank. Out of the 9 little ones I can count 6 of them rest 3 I dunno they might be somewhere in that tank.


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## rockarolla70

DJRansome said:


> Definitely add more shells. There is an article in CF on how to unshell shellies. If you had known about that, you could have cleaned the shells and still added them.
> 
> The new tank will get algae as well unless you have changed something.


As I mentioned I did use the breeder box method and I got 6 out without any problem but that last 3 never came out so had to resort to this method.


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## rockarolla70

Here are some pics of the new tank taken y'day afternoon.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/109mwt1aNmh1O6-ekoGVUgGefY54IL0nE?usp=sharing


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## rockarolla70

Below is the link for the small video I have done ... pardon me for the quality, I will eventually do another video with my Digital SLR camera.


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## Iggy Newcastle

:thumb:


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## rockarolla70

Folks,
This is the current layout (pic) of my multi's tank & how the real estate has been occupied by the respective multi's.

*Marked area occupied by ...*
1) Single male
2) Male & a female (pair)
3) Male & a female (pair)
4) Male & a female (pair)
5) Single male
6) Single male

*My thought process*
- I would want to remove 3 males.
- Introduce 3 or 4 females

So the ration can become 1:2 females. Any suggestions/opinions/thoughts are most welcome.


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## Iggy Newcastle

Nice layout!
IME, the extra males quarrel with eachother and any pairs. Not detrimental and entertaining. With 3 pairs in the tank now, you'll likely have plenty of fry growing up in the next few months. If you can reliably get more females, go for it. I'd predict that some of the extra females will associate with a male who already has a girl, as the males will claim as many females as he can. Basically... just don't assume that 3 more females will pair up with your single males.


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## DJRansome

Why are the single males being chased to the surface? Why not just wait for the fry to populate the tank and THEN remove males as required?


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## rockarolla70

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Nice layout!


Thanks !!



Iggy Newcastle said:


> With 3 pairs in the tank now, you'll likely have plenty of fry growing up in the next few months.


Hopefully I want to see some young ones.



Iggy Newcastle said:


> If you can reliably get more females, go for it. I'd predict that some of the extra females will associate with a male who already has a girl, as the males will claim as many females as he can. Basically... just don't assume that 3 more females will pair up with your single males.


Exactly can't assume that the females will go with the bachelors !! Am getting 4 new females, at the same time I will remove 3 males out of tank before I introduce the females.


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## rockarolla70

Hi Folks,
Thanks for the suggestion. I introduced 6 females this afternoon from a new batch, This is how they have paired.
- *Male #1* - paired with 1 female
- *Male #5* - paired with 3 females ;D
- *Male #6* - paired with 1 female
- *Male #2* - paired with 1 female (though he had one adult female with him previously)

I will observe them for couple days & I will post my update accordingly.

One more thing I observed is ... all the new females who have paired with the males keep exposing their bottom of their belly to the male when he comes towards them. What does this trait signify ??


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## noddy

I wouldn't be to concerned about trying to get even numbers of m/f. They are not pairing fish but harem breeders.
Believe me, in a few months time there will be hundreds of them.


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## rockarolla70

Folks,
Find the attached video link where you can see the new females trait where they show their belly bottom when the dominant males comes towards them.
*
"New batch of multi's (female's) trait/actions"*


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## rockarolla70

noddy said:


> I wouldn't be to concerned about trying to get even numbers of m/f. They are not pairing fish but harem breeders.
> Believe me, in a few months time there will be hundreds of them.


Hi Noddy thanks for the reply. I agree that they don't pair, but what I meant was these new females are in these respective territory.


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## rockarolla70

Hi All,
Have a new problem in my tank, one of my smaller female multi has some sort of infection. Can anyone throw some light on this. I have attached a picture.

Past 4 days I hardly used to see her out of the shell during day, she only used to be out in the evening and during feeding time. Today morning during feeding time I observed this problem. Help me out.

Help appreciated in advance !!


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## Iggy Newcastle

Tough to tell. Cannot really see anything. Can you describe it in any way?


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## rockarolla70

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Tough to tell. Cannot really see anything. Can you describe it in any way?


I was told it was some fungal infection, before I could start the treatment with API Pimafix, the fish gave up.


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## Iggy Newcastle

Anything further on this?


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## rockarolla70

Hi Folks,
*Bad news first* ??? :'(
I lost another bigger female today (sometime during day), I've attached the pic below along with my water parameters readings. Rest of the multie's are doing fine as of now and no weird symptoms at all.
- No fights in the tank.
- No rocks to crush the fishes cause all my rock are glued to the bottom of the tank.
- No excess feeding.
- Even today morning I did not see any bloating or no signs of fungal infections at all, the fish looked fit. Never took the feeding since y'day evening.
- Filtration is prefect, I don't suspect any lack of oxygen issues
- Check the water parameters today (Pic attached) all seems to be prefect except Ammonia, kindly check my pic and confirm if it is 0.0ppm or 0.25ppm. By the color I felt it is 0.0ppm.

Kindly let me know what might be going wrong with the tank.

*Good news*
- A week back I have approx 10 new-born from one the female & all look good & are swimming freely.
- Been feeding the young ones with *Hikari Tropical First Bites*, I see them eating well.


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