Shells for a shellie tank

[tolawdjk]

late to the party but I found good shells at Micheals/Hobby Lobby and even Home Goods when I was looking. Not sure on the species of shell they are, but they were large enough and I couldn't argue the prices. I think it was something like a 6-8 for 2 bucks. The bag from Home Goods was maybe on the borderline small size with some larger ones, but the fry certainly don't mind the smaller ones.

Biggest issue I seem to come up with is the 6 adults I have in the 10 gal tank seem to take turns resculptiong the sand in thier individual claimed territories by spitting it out into the other pair's territories.

 

[jpappy789]

I'm assuming your talking about N. multifaciatus?

In my 55g they seemed to share a single shell pit, but maybe because their area of the footprint was bigger.

 

[tolawdjk]

Yeah, mine are multies. I think they would share a single shell pit is there was a larger footprint for "excavation". These guys love digging. I put a 10 lbs bag of caribsea african mix in as the substrate initially along with the shells on top for the entire length of the tank and all but touching the front and back glass. They have managed to dig down to the bottom glass burying many of the middle shells.

 

[67chevelle]

Which species are you keeping 67chevelle and Wyomingite?

Not positive yet. Was thinking about some gold Lamprologus ocellatus. But might get some Altolamprologus compressiceps Sumbu dwarfs. Maybe both? I'm really not sure.

 

[jpappy789]

Yeah, mine are multies. I think they would share a single shell pit is there was a larger footprint for "excavation". These guys love digging. I put a 10 lbs bag of caribsea african mix in as the substrate initially along with the shells on top for the entire length of the tank and all but touching the front and back glass. They have managed to dig down to the bottom glass burying many of the middle shells.

LOL mine did the same with PFS....all the way down to the glass.

Not positive yet. Was thinking about some gold Lamprologus ocellatus. But might get some Altolamprologus compressiceps Sumbu dwarfs. Maybe both? I'm really not sure.

I don't know enough about either species to give you a good answer, but hopefully Pitt chimes in.

 

[Pittbull]

Dwarf Sumbu's are a def on my list to have and hopefully here soon i will get some, but both together should be fine, Add enough shells because the Sumbu's will def take up a few shells as well..

 

[vwill279]

My gold occies are pretty territorial. I probably wouldnt house both species together in a tank that small unless you're only going to have a pair of the occies. I have 4 in a 20 gal and the dominant male only leaves about 2" of space by the wall for the other male to hang out in. I'm going to be upgrading them hopefully to a 40b soon. The dominant male and his female are breeding though. I have silver mouth turbo shells for them with black sand about 2-3" deep. They do love to dig! I would recommend lighter weight shells than the silver mouth turbos though. Escargots would work well. I might be switching them over. They keep trying to rearrange the shells and they're too heavy for the little boogers

 

[iheartbettas]

i've had a very good experience with cichlidbreeding.com. The name of the company is Aquamaid supplies and sell a large variety of shells at a decent price, but i haven't found any better selection out there. My first shells were from Amazon and they were the escargot shells, but if you're daring to try different shells, cichlidbreeding is the way to go. In my hequi tank, I gave them a wide variety of shells and they all like different shells I've found. Some like the larger shells, and some like the tiny ones they can barely squeeze in. It's very interesting which shells they pick. And digging sand makes them happy or at least something to do lol.

 

[Pittbull]

Whichever route you take just remember to add plenty of shells and some rocks to break up line of sight, the more the better..

 

[67chevelle]

Just got 48 extra large escargot shells today. I got a bunch of rocks last weekend at a LFS. I'm going to go try and find some aragonite sand tomorrow and set up the hardscape. If I can't find the aragonite sand locally I'll have to order it. I still need to get a inline heater, a lid and light before I can get the fish. I'm planning on getting some Vals for it too. I have been asking around and am pretty sure I can get a LFS to order in any fish I want. Now I need to decide what I want......