Neat LFS find

[appaloosatb]

After an 1-1/2 hour drive to Mankato on Tuesday night to tour the pet stores, I was well rewarded! I picked up a pair of wild-caught Neolamp Multifaciatus. I had the employee feed them before he bagged them up, and he said they'd been eating well the whole time they had them. Right now they're in with a pair of Kenyii and an unknown African of some type, but I will be getting a tank set up for them soon with water that's a bit closer to the Tanganyikan PH and hardness.

What would be some good tank-mates for these guys? I'd like to head back and buy the other three that were in the tank with them if I get a chance to on Saturday. I've been keeping my eyes open for some neat cichlids for about a month now, and these were the first that really caught my eyes. We have some gorgeous Brichardi in at work right now, but I don't know much about them so I've held off on buying them. I'd like to breed the Multifaciatus if at all possible, so what conditions should I provide to make this happen, and would tank mates be a good idea? I plan on having plenty of rocky structures, caves, and empty shells for them in a 29gal with 25% water changes every other week. The PH here is 7.8 out of the tap, so I'll slowly add some crushed coral in with the normal substrate and see what that does.

BTW, is there a common name for this species?

I'm feeding a mixture of Hikari Cichlid Gold and Cichlid Staple right now, with tropical flakes and the occasional treat of frozen beefheart or brine shrimp or live foods (baby fish when my community tank becomes overstocked, blackworms, etc). I've heard of these guys also eating snails and shrimp, should I provide that for them as well? Right now they're only about 1/2" each, so they can't take any big foods yet.

[andruboz]

byron, huh?

i lived in pine island for about 6 yrs. my sister lives in st. peter and her nearest fs is about 10x10 space in the back of a local toy store. whats the good store in mankato so i can let her know?

[appaloosatb]

The great one was MVP Pets in North Mankato. Pet Expo is also in Mankato and had a great selection of rare small animals (hamsters etc) and an okay selection of fish. Rochester, MN has Fish 'n Pets, where I work. We have a huge store with a good selection of fish (especially cichlids and SW, but also FW community fish and coldwater fish) but also carry small birds and animals, and the very occasional puppy (we don't deal at all with puppy mills, so puppies only come in when our few breeders have their yearly litters).

More on the Multis... after a bunch of research I've learned that they can breed well in a 10gal tank, so I bought the tank and stand today. I plan to set it up with sand since they love to dig so much, and plenty of empty snail shells so they have lots of homes to choose from. Several websites suggested also havivg a small school of white cloud minnows or similar fish in with them, so I'm considering that... any opinions?

[ChilDawg]

Careful with the assorted African and the Kenyii. The hybridization of Africans has degradated the gene pool to such an extent that it is impossible to tell many of them apart unless they are F0 or F1.

I had never heard of anything being put in with Multies other than possibly Julidochromis spp. I would need to do a check on the water tolerance of White Clouds, but they would be a good dither/target fish as long as they can take Tanganyikan water and you can resign yourself to losing many of your Multie fry once they hopefully start to breed. (Fish-eat-fish rule: Fits in my mouth, goes in my tummy.)