“Multifasciatus” specific tank in progress !!

[Krishna Kumar]

Hi folks,
As I mentioned earlier that a 39" long "Multies" tank was getting ready, finally done with it. Running the tank for one week with my previous multi's matured tank media. Presently have a very uneven ratio in my 10-gal tank (6 males + 3 females), I was waiting for my LFS to source more females. Today got a word from the LFS that they have procured a stock 8 females + 2 males for this project of mine.

Tank Dimension
- 36" (Width) x 13" (Depth) x 12" (Height)

Water Volume
- 100 liters (approx)

Filters (HOB)
- AquaClear 20 + AquaClear 30

Scaping
- Natural River Rocks (handpicked for this)
- 100% natural Play Sand + Nile Sand
- Escargot shells - 72 numbers (in-stock) yet to be added.

What I need help is ... for this above project how many males & females would do ?? Any other suggestion from you folks are most welcome.

 

[Retired Viking]

I have raised and bread African Cichlids in the past but not these. They like shells to live in and breed. Are you planning on breeding them? I started out with 8 cichlids and within a year had over 50 in a 55 gallon tank even though I gave a lot of them away during that time. I took all the breeding plastic grass and hiding areas out of the tank to get them to stop.

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Thanks for the reply Retired Viking,
- No am not planning to breed, but eventually if the conditions are ideal the multi's will surely breed & in that case I might give away a few of young ones to my LFS and some store credit

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Folks,
Below are the 2 pics with shells. Finally released the fish a while ago.
- Took me 3 hours to get 9 adults from my 10gal out of their shells, I used the breeder box removed the net so the multies swim down to the bottom. 5 was a breeze but the last 4 never came out of their shells.
- I had to cut open the shells, I took the chance hoping the multi's will not go deep into the shell, they did go way deep inside, had to cut the shells till the very end and managed to release them without hurting.
- The worst was 2 multi's in one shell, they are stubborn and never what to come out.
- As of now the tiny ones are doing good and none of the adults are harassing them.
- But what I observed is even though it's a big tank & up to 60 shells still the adults squabble for shells/territory, one was getting harassed so had to move him to extreme corner of the tank with some shell for himself.
- I still have some 20+ shells, do you think it's good add them too ??

Will post the update by tomorrow again with the pics of the multi's.

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Now I have an issue on hand, till afternoon none of the adults were bothered about the new batch of smaller multies. Since evening two of the adult females from the previous batch (I had only 3 female) are chasing away the smaller multies. I have put in more shells (in total 91 shells) and have let them sort it out for themselves. Cause some times it's difficult to understand the dynamics of the lot.

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Here are some pics of the new tank taken y'day afternoon.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/109mwt1aNmh1O6-ekoGVUgGefY54IL0nE?usp=sharing

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Below is the link for the small video I have done ... pardon me for the quality, I will eventually do another video with my Digital SLR camera.

Neolamprologus multifasciatus Tank - 27gal (Youtube Link)

 

[Krishna Kumar]

Folks,
This is the current layout (pic) of my multi's tank & how the real estate has been occupied by the respective multi's.

Marked area occupied by ...
1) Single male
2) Male & a female (pair)
3) Male & a female (pair)
4) Male & a female (pair)
5) Single male
6) Single male

My thought process
- I would want to remove 3 males.
- Introduce 3 or 4 females

So the ration can become 1:2 females. Any suggestions/opinions/thoughts are most welcome.