Sheldweller compatibility

[GRK-351]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of changing my display tanks from malawi to tangs and moving all the malawis to the breeding room. This will allow me to get some more species in my tanks also.

I am toying with the idea of some multies or similis in a standard 4ft tank with leptosoma for the top half, but I am wondering if a pair of julies would be ok along side the multies/similis. Ill be going with a rock pile either side of the tank with shells in the middle and sand substrate.

Ultimately, I am trying to go for a tank with little maintenance, apart from water changes. I don't want to be catching and stripping fish because the tank has very tight clearance. For this reason I have chosen the multies/similis because they will care for fry, and I am assuming the lepto fry will also be ok cruising around the bottom of the tank scavenging small food particles. I am not overly concerned if I lose a few fry hear and there, after all it is a display tank.

Just wondering if adding the julies is pushing it? Also any comments regarding the multies/similis and leptos together and the fry situation?

Cheers,

Mat

[brucem]

I've got a small group of lepto in with juli regani, calvus and brevis in a 4x18. The regani are pretty busy, but their rock pile is currently in the middle of the tank. I'm planning to move it the rock pile to one side.

I think it might be better to just go with leptos and a shellie.

In my experience, similis are harder on their fry than multies. Depends what you like best - light with dark stripes or dark with light stripes.

[dogboy]

i think it will work ok, i am thinking of doing the same with multies, leptos, julies and paracyps in a 5 foot

[rowie]

The multies and similis might fight unless you have a fairly high bit of rock work seperating them

Also they might crossbreed

[tootie]

I had a 4x18x18 tank with a pair of gold comps, a pair of juli ornatus, a pair of black occies and about 10 cyp malasa. I found that no matter where I tried to place the rock piles the fish chose different parts of the tank than I had planned for them - I think they do have a mind of their own. The juli ornatus dominated most of the tank and were the only species breeding. I ended up selling off my goldcomps and used a divider in the tank so now have black occies in a smaller section on own in the tank. The julies have the cyps.

Another thing you will find that even though the juli parents may not eat their fry, the bigger fry often eat the smaller ones. Also my guess would be that the juli parents may eat other species fry.

I guess the main thing I learned is that the julis dominate the tank, and because of this neither my cyps or occies would breed. So that is something you may want to consider.

[GRK-351]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I'll stick with either the multies or similis and a colony of 8-12 cyps.

Will post pics once I get it all setup.

[GlennC]

It sounds like you don't want to be messing about in that tank retrieving multis to sell? Just wanted to point out that you will no doubt have a multi-explosion and so if you arne't going to be removing the smaller fish, maybe having a predator in there to keep the fry numbers down might not be a bad idea.

I bred transcriptus in a three footer with my brevis and there were no compatibility issues at all. I think multis protect a wider area than the brevis do and so if the brevis go OK, then I'd expect the mutlis should too. Also, with appropriate rockwork you know your julis are going to mostly hang about the rockwork and your multis are going to stay out in the open.

Having the three species together, especially with the colourful julis in there would look very nice.