hookedonfish Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Hi there everyone Can anyone please tell me everything i need to know about keeping shell dwellers, the keepping and breeding of them would be great please... Will take everything on board because i don't know too much about them... Cheers Aiden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucem Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Wow Aiden, big question. It all depends on what you want to keep. Like most cichlids, each species of shellie can behave a little differently. I keep multis, brevis and occies. I also keep caudo's which probably aren't a true shellie, but they breed in shells or caves. Multis i think are pretty easy. I started with 7 adults in a 2 ft tank with a thin layer of sand and about 20+ snail shells. I fed them flakes and now I have a tank full of fish. They are step breeders which makes them pretty hassle free. Brevis are also pretty easy and keep to themselves. I have them in a community tank with calvus, julies and cyps. There is a pair and an extra female in there. The pair stick to their large shell and keep others away when breeding but they only patrol about 15cm from the shell. They are in a 4x18, but they can breed in really small tanks. The occies are probably the most active. I have a group of youngsters from a former colony of 6. They are super aggressive and a little unpredictable in their behaviour towards one another, but they are the most endearing of my shellies. They fuss with the sand surrounding their shell, beat each other up, males don't tolerate each other and females can be welcomed and rejected by the male (in my experience) overnight. They breed in snail shells, and breed regularly but will kill their previous batch of fry as a new clutch of eggs are laid. Fry survival is good once removed. I have a pair of caudos that are in a 2ft tank on their own. They breed intermittently and I haven't had any success raising fry. I had some young paracyps in with them which they ignored. They are a great group of cichlids. Some species you;'ll get away with keeping them in small tanks, but occies are better kept in 3ft +. There is a web site dedicated to "shelldwellers" which has some good info. I suggest checking it out. When you decide on what species interest you, it would be worthwhile posting some questions about specific species. Good luck Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod54 Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 http://www.shelldwellers.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted April 8, 2009 Share Posted April 8, 2009 Type shell dwellers into Google and read away. There is a massive amount of info on the net for these fish. Different shell dwellers require different things. Choose a type first and that will make doing the research a bit easier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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