Tanganyika Help

[Becks1985]

Well I was thinking of starting a tank of some sort of these can anyone help me with a few things...
My tank is 350 litres 4 ft long
Would like to start a breeding colony
Looking a very colourful species no bigger than 5 inches but not to small either...
Can be shell dwellers
How many should i start with all information very helpful thanks....

 

[DerpPH]

You could have yellow Labidochromis! They are quite easy to breed! Another is the peacocks! Though they reach 6 inches they are beautiful! The ratios if you want to have a breeding colony is 1 male is to 4 females to reduce mating stress! Also if you want to breed cichs is never have more than two males in a breeding tank with not less than 8 females! The males will kill each other and thats where fatalities start! Hope this helps ya Becks!

 

[DerpPH]

Sorry but those I posted were malawi cihs... So sorry! Well theres the spotted julie benthochromis and tropheus sp.

 

[Becks1985]

Yeah was thinking they were...

Has anyone else any experience with these sort of fish?

 

[DerpPH]

Btw I had experience with shell dwellers back then! You can keep as many as 30 ratios are 1 male to 5 females! Just keep many shells for them to hide in! Good luck!

 

[bullit]

If you list what species you like, i can help. Are you wanting to start a community? cheers

 

[Becks1985]

I was looking to start a colony of one species but if i could get away with a colony of 2 species i might do that don't know really much bout them...
Was looking at
Lamprologus oceliatus
But they are quite small though..

Just really looking something colourful like them ones that breed easily to make a colony of them if you know what I mean....
Cheers

 

[bullit]

The oceliatus that you mention dont live in a colony either so you wouldnt be able to have that many.<br /><br />Something like multifasciatus though are small are great to watch as a colony. These would need dozens of shells. Theres a quite few that would live together, calliurus, meeli. sumba etc. Shelldwellers forum might be worth a shout. These fish would live on the sand so then you could have a rock dweller like a julidochromois transcriptus or julie ornatus. These are the smaller julies that are a must. In the open water you could have some cyprichomois utintas. Any more questions fire away. cheers<br />

 

[Becks1985]

So your saying I should maybe go with 3 types one for the shells one for the rocks an one for the open water...

Will they happily breed with different groups of fish in the tank an start there own colony?

How many would you have to start of each.?

I just looked at the ones you mentioned I like the look of the cyprichromis utintas an the julidochromis transcriptus
Didn't really like the look of the multifasciatus ...

 

[bullit]

Yeah thats how you would normally go about it. Terrortorys in different areas.

All the fish will breed but proper colonys will come from multies, also have a look at similes which do the same.


Their colonys will get bigger As with the cyps, they will produce fry but they would most likely be eaten unless you striped them. Rock dwellers like calvus, comps, julies will breed aswell- some fry might survive.

Numbers for rock dwellers is normally half a dozen of each untill a pair forms. Cyps want to be in groups, for your size tank aaround 12. cheers

 

[Becks1985]

Is there any really colourful multies??

 

[bullit]

Theres only one. similis are similar and are nice. With tanganikan fish, the personalitys make up for lack of colour.

Heres a list of shellys http/www.shelldwellers.com/index.php?board=3.0

 

[Becks1985]

Some of them similis look nice... The way u were saying bout no fry really surviving that why I was this bout maybe 1 species an 1 pair an let them have there fry an all grow...
But with 3 species I would be happy with some of the fry surviving from each batch they had till I have a full colony of each...

Do you know the full name for the similis? Cheers...

 

[bullit]

neolamprologus similis

Depending on what you picked shelly wise, you could have a pair and they would still eat the young. If you went with similis and other tank maes, a few will keep on surviving and the colony will build up.

 

[Becks1985]

Ok that sounds good an that would be the same for the other 2 groups as well.....
Should I buy maybe 10 of each group half male an female an the fish that keep getting drove to the top of the tank remove them till I get a pair of each group an let them start growing there colony's..
Are would it be better to get 1 male of each grow with 5 females maybe an let the males take der pick of the females they want??

What sort of prices are each fish if ya know?
Thanks