Shellie tank...

my opinion would be to stay with the 3-4 fish, make sure there is a 1:2/3 male:female ratio and i am pretty sure they will breed readily.
as for the ph from what i have heard and am going to try in the coming days or weeks is put texas holey rock into the tank to up the ph and keep it there, i don't know much about coral. i believe that if it is not bleached it will help, but i am not sure. good luck and hopefully some more of the more experienced can put their 2 cents in on this.

for a 10gal i would only go with one set of shellies, if you go brevis i would say 5 at tops, also with the occe's 5 tops, what about multifasciatus you could go 8, as for the PH problem i would use a crushed coral substrate with a 10gal should be a good buffer for that size plus your shells will add to the buffer capacity i would go with 3 shells per fish, so they have enough shells for retreat..

cool yeah you can add the coral it will help with the buffer capacity just make sure its really rinsed well if you bleached it or something like that, yeah shells i have a 10gal multi fry tank and shells out the wazzoo never hurts to have too many shells with shellies..

I personally believe that 10 gal. is too small for any cichlid, even shelldwellers.

However, if you do go with them stick to a 1:3-4 male/female ratio. More than one male and you'll run into problems with this small of a tank. Not to mention be prepared to unload fry quickly...make sure you can either ship or your LFS takes them because you'll need to remove any "additions" as soon as you need to.

sometimes i get distracted by my own AFD (aquarium fish disorder) that at times i forget to say something or mention like jpappy just said yes i do agree with jpappy on a 10gal adult shellie tank, it is by far small quarters for any cichlid, can it be done, yes, in the long run you will run out of room like jpappy said and or have problems the room for error is very small in such a setup and honest a bigger tank should be provided down the road, with this tank its going to be up to you on your maintenance scheme of plans if you neglect it they will more than likely die, if you stay up on it you should be ok, i have a 10gal multi fry planted setup just for the colony i have going in my 55gal so when it gets full i donate juvies to my local fish club for BAP and i also trade at pet shops for food credits but as jpappy stated you will have to move fish around for this to work if you get too many males with the shellies..



here are a few shots of my multi fry and a parent also the planted 10gal fry setup you will see a yellow fish it is called the neolamprologus mustax i recieved these as a gift from my friend they were fry when i recieved them..