Shelldwellers - 10 gallon shallow - Leave rocks or remove to make room for more shells?

[OakenGoby]

I have a 10 gallon shallow (24"x14"x7"-336 sq. inches of sand).  The tank has about 10 Neolamprologus Multifasciatus, which have sections off the four corners of the tank to start their families.  I've seen babies around 3 of the 4 groups.  The tank is scaped with a few pieces of Seiryu stone, sand, and probably 40 or so shells.  Although everyone is happy and thriving so far, I wonder if removing the rocks to provide more sand space for digging and rearranging the shells would be a better option.  Another benefit for me as their keeper would be I could see the entire colony rather than just the two in front two corners.  My initial thought was breaking up line of sight would be best, but everyone seems to be living happily together.  I also have some Val that is slowly creeping around, so that should help some with the line of sight issue.  

Here's a picture of the tank from a few months ago.  

[TheSwissAquarist]

I'd recommend @Zenzo, he's kept & bred a ton!

[Zenzo]

@OakenGoby I think the way you have it now is good. The line of sight breaks should help. 

[OakenGoby]

On 11/8/2022 at 3:52 PM, Zenzo said:

@OakenGoby I think the way you have it now is good. The line of sight breaks should help. 

Good Deal.  I appreciate you taking the time to post a reply. 

[OakenGoby]

I’m returning to this question for a couple reasons. I have several pairs of neolamprologus multifasciatus and several groups of babies from each pair. All said there’s probably 20-30 fish of all ages. This aquarium is a UNS 60S 24”x14”x7”.  It by no means seems crowded, but I’m wondering what I should consider maximum capacity? With the current load and bi-weekly water changes, my nitrates are rarely more than 10. I do find this tank gets dirty quicker, which I contribute to the constant shifting of sand and my vallisinaria getting buried and killing off some of the leaves. I’m starting to think plants in this tank are more of a pipe dream. Even Anubias and Java fern attached to the rocks become dislodged from all the “housekeeping” that goes on in this tank. Any other plant suggestions?

[beastie]

What I did in my shelldwellers tank was have anubias used as a floating plant 🙂 or a hornwort, to suck out the nutrients, but again, leave it on the surface to rotate merrily away

Not to burst your bubble, but once some males reach maturity, the other males will start chasing them away, and unless they have another territory available, they will hang around on the surface before being harassed to death. They police their own numbers. I did a clump of 5 shells for each male/female, some male had more females, so got more shells, then to break the line of sight the rocks and then another territory

[OakenGoby]

I have close to 50 shells in the tank.  I'm starting to think they may benefit from a larger setup.  

[jwcarlson]

I cannot imagine they wouldn't benefit from a larger setup.  It's rare that fish wouldn't, especially territorial ones.  

I don't have any experience with shell dwellers, but have kept lots of cichlids over the years.  Plants are pretty well always going to be an issue for most of them.  One option would possible be to pot some of them to get them up off the bottom and maybe out of the fray.  Otherwise floaters might be pretty safe, but with such a low footprint the roots are going to hang down 2-4" for most types and that might end up being an issue.

[OakenGoby]

On 3/16/2023 at 11:30 AM, jwcarlson said:

I cannot imagine they wouldn't benefit from a larger setup.  It's rare that fish wouldn't, especially territorial ones.  

I don't have any experience with shell dwellers, but have kept lots of cichlids over the years.  Plants are pretty well always going to be an issue for most of them.  One option would possible be to pot some of them to get them up off the bottom and maybe out of the fray.  Otherwise floaters might be pretty safe, but with such a low footprint the roots are going to hang down 2-4" for most types and that might end up being an issue.

I tried using floating plants and got tired of trimming the roots.  I do want to incorporate plants for the benefits they provide beyond nitrate export.  It is entertaining watching a little fish tear off a leaf and carry it over to the other side of the tank to get it out of his territory, but it just makes for a lot of plant debris that invites algae.  I may remove the glass lid and build the hardscape out of the aquarium.  I could attach some epiphyte plants to grow emersed with the roots hanging down into the water.  With the height of the tank being so low, this would give some dimensionality to the aquarium and the benefits of having plants feed off of the fish waste below.

Overall I find these fish (even the males) to tolerate each other.  They may dart at each other or flare mouths, but nobody ever gets hurt or banished to another area of the tank.  They are clearly happy with the amount of babies they are producing...

[jwcarlson]

I would guess them being tolerant is likely to change as the new males age into maturity.  But like I said, I've not kept the little things. 🙂