As the title suggests, what do you think is the most peaceful Julidochromis species? I'm in the process of setting up a 65g (36") tang community and am wondering if I could house a small colony of julies with a small colony of calvus. What would be the best species to try if I wanted to attempt this and how many should I get?
Most peaceful julidochromis sp?
- Thread starter polosniffer
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I believe most consider transcriptus and ornatus to be the most peaceful...I believe they are also the smallest species on average, but not by much.
I've only had J. transcriptus myself but I would hesitate to call them "colonizers." I started with a pair that produced maybe 12-15 fry that survived before their pair bond broke. They were safe from the parents but once they started getting towards breeding size they were pushed farther and farther away from their parents' original territory. The first two pretty much controlled most of the rockwork I had taking up the one half of my 4 foot. Julies can be nasty if something gets too close to their turf so I would probably only do two pairs to be safe. You should get plenty of fry.
Also I'm not sure I would do calvus in a 3 foot tank long-term. They have the reputation for being slow growers though so you would have plenty of time to upgrade if you buy them young. Once they start growing they may end up picking off Julie fry too, so keep that in mind. You'll need a lot of rockwork to keep everyone happy as well.
I've only had J. transcriptus myself but I would hesitate to call them "colonizers." I started with a pair that produced maybe 12-15 fry that survived before their pair bond broke. They were safe from the parents but once they started getting towards breeding size they were pushed farther and farther away from their parents' original territory. The first two pretty much controlled most of the rockwork I had taking up the one half of my 4 foot. Julies can be nasty if something gets too close to their turf so I would probably only do two pairs to be safe. You should get plenty of fry.
Also I'm not sure I would do calvus in a 3 foot tank long-term. They have the reputation for being slow growers though so you would have plenty of time to upgrade if you buy them young. Once they start growing they may end up picking off Julie fry too, so keep that in mind. You'll need a lot of rockwork to keep everyone happy as well.
julidocromis transcriptus or julidocromis ornatus, i have one juliedocromis, i had quite a few of them, one right now i have left over from my other fish killing the rest is julidochromis marlieri and hes doing great!
I want to clarify that when I said I would start with 4 Calvus and 6 Julies in that tank, I was meaning juveniles only; to let them grow together and then take the action(s) needed.
I have 10 Calvus and 10 J. Marlieri right at adult size and no issues except the occasional skirmish in a 120gal..
Thanks. I'm not particularly interested in breeding either species. Mostly looking for an interesting Tanganyikan community. I'm planning for the focus of the tank to be 1 or 2 tanganyikan eels and I'm really looking for a few other fish to add movement and interest to the tank.
In comparing Juli. transcriptus and Alto. calvus, which do you think is worse regarding conspecific aggression? What about aggression towards non-conspecifics?
If I was to set things up with the intention of ultimately having a single pair or trio of one species and just a single specimen of the other, which would you choose?
I should probably mention that all the "rockwork" in this tank is artifical (I carved it from styrofoam). I have two separate groups of styrofoam "rocks" on the bottom and a section at the top left hand side with a number of crevices and tunnels running through them. Each group of rocks provides a number of holes and hiding places but it's certainly less rockwork than in the standard "big pile of rocks" setup that I've seen online.
This is also potentially going to make catching and removing fish a challenge, so I'd rather not add too many fish that I'm ultimately going to have to remove.
In comparing Juli. transcriptus and Alto. calvus, which do you think is worse regarding conspecific aggression? What about aggression towards non-conspecifics?
If I was to set things up with the intention of ultimately having a single pair or trio of one species and just a single specimen of the other, which would you choose?
I should probably mention that all the "rockwork" in this tank is artifical (I carved it from styrofoam). I have two separate groups of styrofoam "rocks" on the bottom and a section at the top left hand side with a number of crevices and tunnels running through them. Each group of rocks provides a number of holes and hiding places but it's certainly less rockwork than in the standard "big pile of rocks" setup that I've seen online.
This is also potentially going to make catching and removing fish a challenge, so I'd rather not add too many fish that I'm ultimately going to have to remove.
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I would hesitate to guess Julidochromis in both cases. But the mouths of calvus certainly come into play 
I'm not sure I'd be able to choose between either...if breeding were a goal then obviously a pair of which ever one I wanted to breed would make the most sense.
I'm not sure I'd be able to choose between either...if breeding were a goal then obviously a pair of which ever one I wanted to breed would make the most sense.
I agree but when you add Julido's and Calvus it is a safe bet that you will not have any breeding issues because the fry will be picked off, you may have the one occasional fry to survive but no where in the numbers like Mbuna.. Its a toss up with either of these two i have had mine for years together at a young age and their aggression is really not an issue in my tank and if i had to choose the species that would be more on the aggression side it would be my Julido's..
