12 Gal Eclipse Shellie tank

[JennysPlanties]

So here's what I've done with my 12 gallon. I didn't upgrade the lighting at all (yet, lol) so I stuck with plants I thought would do well at 1wpg. There's some Java fern and anubias nana tied to the driftwood, anacharis in the back, some corkscrew vals that for some reason stopped growing in my 55 gal, a huge crypt culled from my 55 gal, some hygro, and water wisteria.

I decided to go with a trio of shell dwellers and a small school of golden white cloud minnows for dithers. I wanted to do apistos, but my water is just way too hard to be habitable for them and I really don't want to mess with RO water or chemical buffers.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[fshfanatic]

If it was my tank I would dump the WC Minnows and stick to the shellies. They require much harder water..

[JennysPlanties]

The water is SO hard at my house straight out of the tap, so I'm not worried about it not being hard enough, lol.

I wanted a few dithers so that the tank didn't look empty with only 3 tiny fish in it, the LFS guy suggested white clouds or tetras. I went with the WCs because I wanted fish that will stay relatively small and not "dwarf" my little shellies.

If it looks like the WCs aren't doing well, I can always put them in my big 55 gal, there's room in there for them!

Are there other dithers that you think would be a better choice for the tank?

[lauraleellbp]

Not tetras, for sure- most S. American species need at least neutral if not soft water.

[fshfanatic]

I meant that the shellies required harder water than the WCs. That is probably why they arent doing well and the shellies are..

[JennysPlanties]

Right now everyone seems to be doing just fine. The minnows are very active and are eating.

The shellies are starting to explore the shell bed, but nobody has claimed a shell yet.

I'll make sure to watch the WCs, although I can't say that the water in any of my other 3 tanks is any softer than the water in my shellie tank... Hopefully they'll be alright!

[ItsDubC]

What species of shellies are these? I can't see them in the pic.

[JennysPlanties]

Blue Occies - lamprologus ocellatus

Pics of them are here, all the way at the bottom of the page:
http://www.shelldwellers.com/index.php/topic,9.165.html

I haven't sexed them yet, I think I have 2 females and a male, but I'm no expert for sure. They were the only 3 shell dwellers in the entire store - I had wanted to get multies since they don't care for a sandy substrate and I wanted to keep flourite in the tank but the occies are cute as heck too.

[Lotsofish]

I had a 12 gallon eclipse with plants in it but found it was hard to maintain because you have to take the whole top off to get into the tank. It is not an easy top to deal with. Still, my biggest concern for you is maintaining your plants and cleaning the acrylic when the shellies have fry. My stappersi can give quite a little nip if my hand gets to close to a shell with fry in it (I've heard that multis are even worse). The 12 gallon tank might seem small when trying to avoid those little fish.

Still, you will enjoy those fish--they have attitude!

[JennysPlanties]

Lotsofish: I am already enjoying them, they definitely are fun to watch! The biggest one (who I think is the male) has decided that he wants ALL of the shells for himself as of this evening. LoL I'm going to have to break up the bed into a few smaller groups and try to make line of sight barriers...

As for getting nipped, I will keep that in mind when (if?) they have fry. Since this is a low tech tank I'm hoping there won't be too much plant maintenance like I have to do on my 4 wpg 55 gal.

Speaking of which, I've got 4 Killies in the 55 gal and let me just say that THOSE little buggers give a hell of a nip. I had my arm in the tank the other day for about an hour moving stuff around and I got bit no less than half a dozen times by the alpha male, and the really huge female (4+ inches!) got me once so hard that I jumped out of my skin.

It always amazes me that such small little creatures can hurt so much!

[ItsDubC]

You won't be disappointed w/ the occies. I love them because of their 'big attitude in a little package' demeanor. They'll attack anything that gets close to their shell, especially mothers. I had a trio of gold occies but it was two males and one female and the dominant male kept bullying the other so I had to break it up. I did manage to get the dominant male and the female to produce offspring, but I wasn't able to raise the fry.

Occies are MUCH easier to sex if they are adults of the same age, as size is the best indicator in my opinion. Male adults are always bigger than female adults of the same age. For me, I always looked at the REAR of the dorsal fin. If it's white, it's most definitely a female. This method hasn't failed me yet, but I've read that this sexing method is unreliable in occies that aren't wildcaught. You'll get a much better view of the dorsal fin if you get them to flare up by putting your finger or a fish net near them or their shell (maybe not finger since you have blue occies, which are bigger than golds from my experience).

Some ppl have been able to sex them based on their upper-lip definition but it's much harder in my opinion. What I've found more useful is if u can get them to face you (ie you only see their face), males are much more wider at the bottom than females. For example, a male's body shape while facing you looks more like "/_\" while a female's is somewhere inbetween "/_\" and "|_|" I hope this is all making sense lol.

Another sexing method that I always thought was kinda hard but works for some is if you're lookin at em from the side, a female's snout is shorter than a male's. This means a shorter distance from the part of the face beginning at the eye that runs to the tip of the mouth.

As w/ any of these sexing methods, it helps to be REALLY familiar with them. If you just stay there watching them for a long time, you'll start to notice differences. Again, I hope what I've said makes sense and is helpful

EDIT:

I just saw the pics you posted of your occies on that link. I love the blue flash on their sides when light hits it at the right angle. You've got some nice occies there

[xNinja]

That's a really nice look you have going. Just be careful with the anacharis and the low light, the lower leaves can die and yuck things up a tad.

[nkambae]

Hi Jenny,

You could also try one of the smaller rainbows. A few of those tolerate a wide range of pH and hardness. They also have the advantage of small size and most are quite attractive. Perhaps Pseudomugil signifer would be a good choice. Here's a good resource for info on rainbows:

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm

Good luck.

stu

[fishman9809]

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