They are monogamous, so only 1 m /1 f. As adults, females are larger than males (but there is almost no difference when they are young), but, if you buy 4 juvies, you should end up with a good pair. The odd pair out will need to be removed because the bonded pair won't tolerate them anymore.
you can probably breed a couple species in there as long as you choose the right ones. If you go with the transcriptus, place rocks and such at one end and they should take over that part and then put sand and shells in the other end and put a shelldweller of some type. Neolamprologus multifasciatus is the smallest shelldweller and they are colony breeders so they can either have a pair or several females per male. I started with 13 in a 20 long and keep thinning them out. I currently have about 8 adults, 10-15 juveniles and about 30 fry growing out in there. the more shells the better. I had some problems early on for some reason. I bought the fish from a good friend who had them established in one of his tanks. I started having a few of the originals die and fungus immediately about once every 2-3 months. About that time I had my first batch of fry. I caught 20 of them at about 1/2" and moved them to a separate established tank with the same water parameters. They started bloating and dying once a day until they were all dead. I could never figure out what happened. Not too long after that I dosed the tank with flubendazole to kill malaysian trumpet snails and I have not had a death since and have sold many of the originals and fry from that tank. Flubendazole is an anti-parasitic drug so I'm thinking there was some type of internal parasites causing this problem and I cured them accidentally. Not sure on the julies but the multies will eat anything you give them. Mine actually prefer the tetramin flakes over most other foods but I give them live BBS, flakes and other foods as well. cya, Kyle
I think it will, but the julies do liked to sometimes move stuff. But they aren't generally diggeres, so they should be okay. Some shellies like to move things around too, but they'll probably be okay also.
FYI, I think rift lakes with sand are much more attractive because it looks more natural.
thanks, i'll go with sand then just to be on the safe side!
so does this sound ok so far 4 J. transcriptus (removing two of them if a pair forms), 1 male and 3 female neolamprologus multifasciatus, and a couple of fairly non aggressive cichlids which i have yet to decide(any recomendations much appreciated!)?
TIA
thanks again both of you!!!