[thedood]

Howdy folks! I have a 75G I am stocking with all Tanganyikans. Here is what I am considering for stock and wanted to make sure this is a good plan.

5 - Synodontis petricola
4 - Julies with the idea being to rehome the outcasts
4 - shellies same as above
4 - calvus same as above
12 - Cyps

Are all of the julie and shellie species small? Maybe I would be better going with either or in this setup?

Here is the aquarium.

 

[DJRansome]

I would start with 6 of the julidochromis and calvus expecting each species to form a pair and you are likely to have to rehome the others.

Shellies start with 6 and the colony will expand. I would choose between Synodontis and shellies.

12 cyps and 5 lucipinnis sound good. Note that lucipinnis is sold as dwarf petricola...true petricola are not generally available.

 

[thedood]

Shellies start with 6 and the colony will expand. I would choose between Synodontis and shellies.

Thanks for the reply. Are you saying one or the other because the shellies would breed and the synodontis would eat the fry, there might there be some aggression issues, or something else I'm not thinking of?

 

[thedood]

One other thing I think I am going to do is build a couple of live food colonies, meaning scuds and black worms. Any reasons y'all can think of that I might not want to do this?

 

[DJRansome]

Synodontis will annoy the shellies and you will not see their natural behavior. They both want the bottom.

I don't feed live food, so hopefully others will chime in. Or you could try asking in the Illness, Health, Nutrition forum.

 

[Deeda]

I've fed live Black Worms to a variety of my Tangs and they do enjoy them, even searching for the ones that bury in the sand. I used to buy them from my LFS in quantity and kept them in a shallow container in my refrigerator, changing the water daily with untreated cold well water and they last a long time. Chlorine/chloramine will kill them so keep that in mind as well as any room mates may not like keeping them in the refrig. You will also need to remove any leeches or pests that come with them which was not a problem for me.

As far as culturing them yourself, there a few websites or forums that have articles about how to raise them but the difficulty will be removing them from the culture container depending on what you use. Some use shredded paper or similar media which makes removing the worms a pain.

 

[thedood]

As far as culturing them yourself, there a few websites or forums that have articles about how to raise them but the difficulty will be removing them from the culture container depending on what you use. Some use shredded paper or similar media which makes removing the worms a pain.

Deeda thanks for the reply. I plan on just tossing them in the tank, removing leeches first, and just letting them breed and be little treets for the fish. I'm currently culturing scuds and am adding cull grade rcs to my food culturing tanks. RCS make great live food.

 

[Fogelhund]

Synodontis will annoy the shellies and you will not see their natural behavior. They both want the bottom.

I don't feed live food, so hopefully others will chime in. Or you could try asking in the Illness, Health, Nutrition forum.

The Synodontis will annoy everyone... they'll go after eggs and fry of the calvus and Julidochromis as well..... at this point, I only keep Synodontis with mouthbrooders. There is less conflict that way.

 

[thedood]

The Synodontis will annoy everyone... they'll go after eggs and fry of the calvus and Julidochromis as well..... at this point, I only keep Synodontis with mouthbrooders. There is less conflict that way.

Fogelhund, Thanks. I think I am going with shellies instead.