Hey still undecided setting up a new tank with either brevis, gold occy's or possibly multies but leaning towards occys at this stage .. They will be in a tank with sand sifter xenotilapia ochrogenys and hopefully getting some cyprochromis leptosome if that makes difference the tank is 3ft by 2ft about 55-60 gallons any help would be great thanks
I agree with deeda definitely to short once they are full grown i recommend 5 ft or 6ft tank although four does work with non jumbos. As far as shellies go thats just a personal preference but if it were me I wouldnt put any in with the Xenos id rather them have as much sand area as possible.
You've got some great options for your tank, but I think choosing which shelly isn't the problem.
I had troubles with x. flavipinnis in a 4" tank... and x. ochrogenys gets bigger and can be more aggressive. I wouldn't expect anything good to come from putting them in a short tank and expect them to share the footprint with shellies. Also, cyps in less than 4ft is a tough gamble, especially if you're going to have two other species using the tank's footprint.
So... what would work?
6 Shell dwellers (your choice, though multies are my favorite and my brevis were boring)
8-12 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis
A peaceful rock dwelling species (start with ~6 to get a compatible pair/group): altolamprologus, small julidochromis (not marlieri or regani), L. caudopunctatus
If you want xenos, x. papilio would likely work... and you could stock them with paracyps but skip the shellies:
6 X. papilio
8 P. nigrippinis
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