Neolamprologus Multifasciatus Tank

[ashemely]

Update Time! It's been almost a month since my last update Woops. The tank is running smoothly, although I'm having an algae bloom atm, which I'm pretty sure is due to the root tablets I placed in the sand a couple of weeks ago. The tablets sorta "exploded" like a volcano overnight by expanding above the sand and then, of course, dissolving into the water. Sigh.

The fry are doing well, though. They're somewhere between 1.5-2 cm. They haven't really grown in length, but they seem to be getting more girth about them. I do think even though the fry are small, it's getting a little crowded in the tank oddly enough. Each fry has it's own shell in Mom's territory and the one's that don't have their own shell are living in between the shells in Mom's territory. The shells are prime real estate, of course, and sometimes I will catch a couple of fry squabbling at the mouth of the shell. It's too cute.

I'm still feeding them the powdered fry food twice a week, but on the days the adults get flake food, I will crush up the flake a little bit so the fry can eat some as well. Just like the adults, the fry have HUGE mouths. For the most part they will stick to the tiny sized bits of flake, but occasionally a fry will manage to grab and eat a piece of flake that is almost the size of itself! Truly amazing...and scary for me, lol. On to the pics...

Dad on the left, fry in a shell in the mid and Mom on the right.

Mom and the largest fry next to each other (size comparison, even though the fry is still in the shell a bit.)

Junior and Daddy in the background.

Cutie. I just love their little 'lips.'

Thanx for reading.

 

[kribensis12]

I really like this thread! I was debating between getting N. Multifasciatus or N. Brevis, but after this I might go for the multi's. It's been a great read, and the pic's are beautiful! I can't wait for more update's!

 

[kiriyama]

Cheers again for the pics, still enjoying the updates, Multis driving me up the wall, they dug out the whole tank, sand everywhere, moved shells and won't let the Juli go anywhere, so I had to do what I didn't want to do. Moved all the sand, lifted all the slate I had stacked against the glass and on the bottom, all the slate is flat on the bottom of the tank now, built a corner stack with ocean rock and tufa for the Juli, all the shells are at one half of the tank and all the slate buried with sand now, ... Although one multi wants to use the plec cave I put together, selfish or what?
Love them to bits, never get boring....

 

[AdAndrews]

how many times a day to you feed the multies?

thanks

 

[kiriyama]

Sorry for the hijack, before and after moving sand , slate and shells, would not advise to anyone, water went like milk, the pewter sand is very nice and the multis love it.
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0198.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0195.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0202.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0203.jpg
Hi AdAdam, SomeTetra PRO Vegetable or Tetramin in the morning, frozen food in the evening, sometimes miss one or the other or alternate feeding times, if not hungr won't eat so miss a feed, have seen them at the plecs Algae wafer and catfish pellets,

 

[ashemely]

I really like this thread! I was debating between getting N. Multifasciatus or N. Brevis, but after this I might go for the multi's. It's been a great read, and the pic's are beautiful! I can't wait for more update's!

Thanx, krib12! The Multi's are fun to watch, there's always something going on in the tank now, like construction, herding the fry, defending territories or the male breaking up fights in between the females, and of course, the occasional fry darting into the middle of the tank to try and catch some 'food' and then rushing back to the protection of Mum n Dad! I've never kept N. Brevis, but I imagine they would be similar to Multis. I think the main difference is Brevis like to bury their shells in the sand, and Multis, imo, don't like sand anywhere near their shells and will remove it to a corner of the tank by the mouthfuls. When they breed, multis are more colony oriented and brevis, that I've read, won't eat their fry but they won't go out of their way to protect their fry either. Which is why I bought the multis, in the end. Good luck with your decision, either way shellies are fun!

 

[ashemely]

Sorry for the hijack, before and after moving sand , slate and shells, would not advise to anyone, water went like milk, the pewter sand is very nice and the multis love it.
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0198.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0195.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0202.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0203.jpg
Hi AdAdam, SomeTetra PRO Vegetable or Tetramin in the morning, frozen food in the evening, sometimes miss one or the other or alternate feeding times, if not hungr won't eat so miss a feed, have seen them at the plecs Algae wafer and catfish pellets,

lol, yeah I found the sandpits annoying, too. Which is why when I moved the multis into the living room I only put in enough sand just to cover up the bottom. And they still are removing sand away from their shells! But I've got so many shells in there that they really can't get in between the shells to remove the sand, so it's not too bad. On to your tank, I like the look of the slate type steps. Gives the tank a little bit more dimension, and you can probably see what's going on in the back of the tank better, too. Feel a bit sorry for the Juli now, though, all by itself in the corner. lol, but maybe it's happy to get away from those pesky multis!

 

[ashemely]

how many times a day to you feed the multies?

thanks

Before the fry I was feeding them once a day every day including weekends, not long after I turned the lights on. I fed them, and still do, something different than the day before, I have frozen pellets that they love, flake and frozen brine shrimp. Before the fry I would do Mo: pellets, Tu: flake, We: pellets, Th: frozen brine shrimp, Fr: pellets, Sa: flake and Su: frozen brine or skip the day all together. With the fry though, I feed them the same schedule I just add the powdered fry food, that the adults also eat, on Mondays and Fridays as an evening meal not long before I turn the lights off, and I don't feed them on Sundays.

I feed them a lot, in the sense that I feed them every day, but I try not to feed them a lot in the amounts I give them every day.

 

[kiriyama]

Sorry for the hijack, before and after moving sand , slate and shells, would not advise to anyone, water went like milk, the pewter sand is very nice and the multis love it.
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0198.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0195.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0202.jpg
http/i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad294/kiriyama_01/Photo0203.jpg
Hi AdAdam, SomeTetra PRO Vegetable or Tetramin in the morning, frozen food in the evening, sometimes miss one or the other or alternate feeding times, if not hungr won't eat so miss a feed, have seen them at the plecs Algae wafer and catfish pellets,

lol, yeah I found the sandpits annoying, too. Which is why when I moved the multis into the living room I only put in enough sand just to cover up the bottom. And they still are removing sand away from their shells! But I've got so many shells in there that they really can't get in between the shells to remove the sand, so it's not too bad. On to your tank, I like the look of the slate type steps. Gives the tank a little bit more dimension, and you can probably see what's going on in the back of the tank better, too. Feel a bit sorry for the Juli now, though, all by itself in the corner. lol, but maybe it's happy to get away from those pesky multis!

Really tempted getting Juli a couple of pals, although they may not be accepted or appreciated, plenty of nooks and crannys in that rock pile, put a new tankmate in this morning, Bristlenose Plec. he's yellow with red eyes and tons of bristles on his snout, looks like he has Santas reindeers mounted on his face lol... The Multis rule the tank though, they are very curious of the new arrival, he's very shy and hides in the rock pile..... Multis rock......

 

[kiriyama]

Meant to ask, can you notice any physical difference betwen your male and female multis?

 

[ashemely]

Meant to ask, can you notice any physical difference betwen your male and female multis?

Really the only difference, other than size, I can tell is the male has a pimple like bump right in front of his anal fin. However, sometimes I can see this bump on the females but it's not nearly as large and prominent, and I'm thinking that when I don't see the feature on the females that they must be heavy with eggs. You may be able to see what I'm talking about in the first picture of my last lot photos. And you can also see in the second pic the female clearly does not have that pimple like bump. I can see it clear as day, but I also know what I'm looking for!

 

[kiriyama]

Still struggling, think it's all girls, if I could get 1 mature alpha male I think the tank would explode, lol
Keep the pics coming , always nice to see them, cheers again....

 

[ashemely]

Time for another update. This one I have sad news. I've lost five fry. It is possible that these fry are just hiding, but I think they are dead. Here's the story...

The first female to have a batch of fry, I think she had six or seven, I refer to her as righty. The second female to have a batch, I think she had three, I refer to her as lefty. The third female that hasn't had any fry, I refer to her as mid. And if you haven't figured it out these 'names' are really all in reference to where their territories are in the tank.

For the last couple of weeks, I've noticed mid has really been pushing the boundaries into righty's territory. This is when I noticed a couple of fry were missing, but I just thought they were hiding from mid. After another couple of fry went missing I decided to try and break up the girl's territories. I clumped each female's lot of shells into a tighter space so that their boundaries could really be identified, in the thought that righty could see what was hers and defend it. Is that what happened? No. *Sigh* Instead, mid moved into righty's territory taking about half of her space, and seeing as how mid's territory was vacant lefty has both her old lot of shells and what was supposed to be mid's. Since I've moved the shells I've noticed another fry has gone missing.

I'm thinking mid is the culprit, and the reason why I suspect mid is the fry killer, is because lefty's fry are all accounted for. Lefty is very aggressive when mid tries to come into her territory and I think that's why her fry are still living. Righty, she's slackin in the protection area, and it's Big Daddy who's more into defending the first batch of fry. But he's got the whole tank to protect against that mysterious male living in the glass. So, mid will probably be going up for sale/adoption tomorrow.

 

[Always Learning]

But he's got the whole tank to protect against that mysterious male living in the glass.

Great journal and it has certainly made me think of starting another tank, similar to this one. I just love fish with character and I think having a small species only one like this and watching them do their thing would be fantastic.

Sad news about mid, but fingers crossed, the fry are still hiding away somewhere until it's safe again. Sounds like a long shot, but stranger things have happened.

Couldn't help laughing at the part I quoted though

 

[ashemely]

I have been sick with a cold for the last few days, and my body has finally stopped oozing mucus and what not for me to comfortably sit in front of my computer and not worry about snot getting in my keyboard. That's a lovely image I've placed in your head, I know. Anyway, I have some good news and some bad news and then some more bad news. It's not terrible, really. So, I was staring at the fish tank the other day, mostly at mid thinking very evil things about her and her murdering ways, when I noticed that mid has been doing some construction around her shells. She removed all of the sand around her shells so that there is just the glass bottom. I hate that. Once again I was staring at the glass bottom thinking evil things about mid when I noticed I very teeny tiny (less than .5 cm) baby multi swimming around the glass area! Good news: Mid has finally had her first fry! Bad news: with Mid having fry I'm pretty much thinking that she probably did kill/eat the bigger fry who probably thought her teeny tiny ones were lunch. Of course, I can't blame Mid for protecting her fry.

Bad news #2 is for me: this is that my husband and I will be moving in a couple of months time. I suppose that's not the bad news really, it's just that we will be moving back to America and I will have to sell the multis, and sadly not be able to watch the fry grow up. It will be easier for me to sell all four of the adults together, and I'm going to try and make it even easier for myself and try and sell the whole set up together tank/fish/equipment/everything. I really don't want to, but I'm hoping that whoever does take over my setup, or at least the fish, will be able to continue this thread so that I and the rest of you all can continue to watch these little buggers grow up!