Lake Tanganyika Species • Cleaning sand under shells

[Jarrods]

I am about to get some N. Similis. Just wondering how you clean in and around the shells without disturbing them too much?

Thanks
Jarrod

[reflexhunter]

I generally don't worry about cleaning around the shells to much,but you can use your hand and slightly wave it over the shells to bring the detritus up and away from the shells to a more open area to remove with you siphon.

[mccluggen]

I have found that a turkey baster is an awesome tool to have on hand for all sorts of things with a tank. You can use it to squirt down between shells to stir up the sand and get detritus into the water column so it can be siphoned out and removed with a water change.

When you have babies in the tank you might even get to see a really bold male try and kill the baster.

[triscuit]

Shellies do a pretty good job of keeping the shell bed clean- I typically disturb the shells only when I'm grabbing some of my multies for trade/sale. If the fish have buried too many shells, I'll watch for areas where they aren't actively breeding, and start digging things up there.

[Jarrods]

Thanks for the replies guys. Was hoping it was that easy.

How deep is the sand you have under the shell bed?

[cdavitt]

I started with about 2 inches of sand. The multi's will move the sand and the shells wherever they want it. Most of the shells used for breeding in my 20L have been dug down to the glass.

[Jarrods]

So it doesn't really matter then. Just chuck some sand in and they will sort it, thanks for the reply.

Now to decide what to stick in the rock pile!

[Jarrods]

The person I will be getting the similis from said I could have a few regani juvies for free, do you think they would be ok? Heard they might get a bit big. Here is the rock pile I have waiting for the next step.



Thoughts? The tank is 36" by 12", this takes up approx 1/3.

The other option was leave the julies and get paracyps, 6 or 8. Or find a smaller Julie... To
Many decisions!!! Haha

[prov356]

Go with the paracyps. Avoid the larger julis for this tank. Smaller julis could work ok, but I'd lean toward letting the similis get a bit established first. I mixed them with transcriptus for a while and the similis were the bosses of the tank. But, I didn't leave the julis long enough to grow out and spawn, so can't say how that would have changed the dynamics.

[Clink51]

you can always try what im currently doing in my tank, or at least what im trying to do.
I have a 29g tank and im trying to set a pair of J. marlieri (Gombe) because i currently have 6 juvis and when something is better set up, ill put the shellies in. should be about 2 Julies, 5-6 Multis and 9 zebra danios flying above head

[Jarrods]

Sounds good to me! Though I am going to use transcriptus.

Will wait and see what I decide. Similis will go in first.