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Anyone familiar with shell dwelling cichlids?

503 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Grah the great
Hey All,

So I wanted to start a second tank for some shell dwellers and was curious if anyone has them and is well versed? I ask because I know they do not use the upper water column. I wanted to be able to keep a nice colony of them and thought about the Mr. Aqua 12g long. It has a 3' footprint though so I was thinking I could probably maintain a nice size colony in that tank, while still keeping the gallon size low.

Any feedback is appreciated.
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I used to have small colony of neolamprogus brevis. They get really agressive when breeding and they breed quite easily. I did not like them too much since they usually stay in the entrance of their shell and don't use the whole tank but keep bothering others tank mate. However they do sell for quite a bit here so they were nice for that when I decided to breed them. I wouldn't do them again personnaly. There is some much more interesting dwarf cichlid. I would only suggest those if your water is liquid rock and you plan on breeding some less common cichlids.


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Interesting, thanks for the info. I was looking into multis for my colony. From reading on other forums, people said the multis have great personalities and are a lot of fun to watch. I wonder if it varies by species?
Multies are more popular than brevis, possibly because they can be stocked more densely (multies form harems: brevis tends to pair bond, which causes problems for trying to stock them densely). A 3' tank would be good for them...just keep an eye on water quality since, like most 'tangs', multies do not appreciate nitrates AT ALL.
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