Lamprologus Meleagris question

[Aux]

Hey guys!

Have to ask a question of the more experienced meleagris keepers in here

Do you ever find that the male seems to just want every shell in the tank? I started with my 20g with 4 of them, one male 3 females, some rockwork to break their line of sight and about 15 shells. The male started killing one of them, so I have her in another tank now. Now hes started doing it to another one - keeps her up the top of the tank and hangs out the front of her shell as well as the other 10 or more hes claimed (the female its happening to now is crazily aggressive too, would attack my hand if i put it in the tank, and theres no spawn)..

Theres one more female in there that hes semi aggressive with, but hes not booting her out yet. Is this pretty normal behaviour or do you think there is a lack of shells?

[rowie]

Mate i had 10 in a 2x2x2 cube and the dominant male killed them all

But it was my fault as i got lazy with my tank design

You cant just throw them in with some shells and expect them to breed happily you need to set your tank up with a decent rock formation that has a little bit of height to break there line of sight up and plenty of hidy holes for them

Maybe even a few plants

Not to sure if they will eat them i don't imagine they would

Good luck with them mate

Cheers rowie

[Aux]

Thanks rowie : ) yeah i had them separated and out of sight of each other, the male had half of the tank to himself but it seems he wants more! Theres one female in there with him now that he doesnt seem to bother, i was wondering if maybe he wanted the other ones out to pair up with the last one lol - i hope so!