Hello Fishkeepers
- Thread starter ZooBinh
- Start date
Julies needs caves and rockwork to spawn and raise their fry. Callochromis like a bare sandy bottom, but may be hard to find. I think breeding a group of shelldwellers would be the most interesting option.
Not in such a small tank, in my opinion. Many years ago, Paul Loiselle, who was in charge of the New York Aquarium, told me that the exhibit which got the most attention from their visitors was not the gars or piranhas, it was a small tank with a colony of N. multifasciatus - people were fascinated by the way that the adults and broods of fry with different sizes went into and out of their shells, sometimes digging in the sand or looking for food or displaying to each other. They are very little trouble to look after, provided you are prepared to hatch some Artemia from time to time, provide some small frozen food and do your basic maintenance regularly.
Difficult in such a small tank with any 2 species of cichlid. You might try an Altolamprologus species, they look fierce - but they really aren't. There is a very small variety of A. compressiceps called 'Sumbu' which is also a shelldweller, which might be ideal if you put extra shells in different parts of the tank. If you can get small specimens of the larger forms of compressiceps or calvus, they will grow rather slowly and live in your tank for some while, but they are rather more delicate than most Lamprologines so they need extra care compared to some Tanganyikans.
Of course you can start like that, and you might be able to keep it like for a little while if you start with very small fishes. But I am almost certain you will end up with one breeding pair of Julies and the rest dead (unless all the Julies are the same sex - when you might end up with just one individual). That's not the fault of Julies, their survival in the wild depends on finding and holding a suitable rocky territory to raise their fry. It's not fair to keep them if you can't provide this - and it's not fair to keep other fishes in such a small tank that they can't help triggering the Julies' territorial instincts. You might keep a pair of Julies and some shelldwellers in a larger tank, if the Julies are small and the shelldwellers are larger ones like N. brevis but it could still be risky.
It would be like a zoo housing a pair of wolves with a pair of tigers: they might be able to coexist without much harm to either species in the wild, but it wouldn't happen like that in captivity.
Agreeing with @gentle lemur here... while not overly familiar with African cichlid husbandry, I do know they tend to be testy. Trying to do a mixed community with cichlids in a 10 gallon won't be easy. For territorial fish, that's not much territory and there will be squabbles. Most cichlids seem to have little difficulty in damaging each other or killing each other in those situations unfortunately. For a mixed African cichlid tank, I probably wouldn't have gone any smaller than a 55 gallon. Gives enough space to provide sufficient rock work for fish to get away from each other.
Would these be your first cichlids @ZooBinh? Curious, have you talked to anyone wherever you'd be getting these fish? And if so, did they make any suggestions on keeping them?
Would these be your first cichlids @ZooBinh? Curious, have you talked to anyone wherever you'd be getting these fish? And if so, did they make any suggestions on keeping them?
One corydora, the neon tetra and several Guppies have passed away during the last couple weeks due to old age.
However in the freshwater tank I have added several swordtails, three rhadinocentrus ornatus, one platy and around 10 more empire Gudgeons. In the saltwater tank I have also recently gotten a purple fire fish, a coral handed shrimp, two scolymia, loads more zoanthids, a hammer coral, a torch coral I rescued from the fish shop as it was very sick and two more gonioporas.
Curious, do you know what was wrong with it? And how is it doing?
How many gallons are your tanks?One corydora, the neon tetra and several Guppies have passed away during the last couple weeks due to old age.
@animal_expert01 you should join fishlore
My freshwater tank is 65L. My marine tank display is 120L while the sump is around 40L putting the entire system at around 180L.
One if it's head was dead the other remaining three were very bleached. The bleaching has significantly reduced to the point where now only the tips of the tentacles are white on two heads. The two heads are recovering quite well however I don't think they will ever fully recover. One head however is very sick and I think it will unfortunately die in the near future.
Here's a picture of the coral in its current state:
Attachments
I think the tips on the two heads may just be normal coloration now, the torch corals I've seen all have light tips to their tentacles. Look up torch coral in Google images, they all show a similar pattern. I suspect those two heads at least will do just fine if the conditions are kept up. Good luck with it!
What coral do you have? Also what freshwater species do you keep?
@ZooBinh the only way to avoid aggression in a tank as small as a ten gallon would be to overstock the tank. This would mean heavily over filtering the tank and doing frequent water changes. You will also need to provide ample hiding spots, at the very least one per fish. It's probably not worth the work. If you really want to keep those three species you should upgrade to a larger tank or get three different tanks. Maybe you could get another two tanks during a sale such as the dollar per gallon sale. Good luck!
Thanks! I need to find time with my parents to take advantage of the dollar per gallon sale.
I have a few purple mushrooms, and a small colony of starburst polyps.
Currently at a low with my freshwater, haven't been replacing as I lose specimens due to decisions to put money elsewhere right now. I do still have a Gold-spotted Plecostomus, a Black-spotted Upside-down Catfish, a Brilliant Rasbora, and a Fire Danio. I can provide a list of species I've kept from both tanks if interested.
This thread, plus helping a friend set up their new aquarium, is making me miss fishkeeping a lot right now...
In other news, here's an interesting article I came across this morning:
Basement Preservationists: Can Hobbyists Save Rare Fish from Extinction?
In other news, here's an interesting article I came across this morning:
Basement Preservationists: Can Hobbyists Save Rare Fish from Extinction?