Tank Size Recommendations for Shell Dweller Upgrade

[Mattlikesfish36]

I have a group of 6 neolamprologus similis in a 10 gallon aquarium and I am looking to upgrade now that they have started to breed. I’m hoping to use this as justification to my wife that it’s time for me to build a multi aquarium rack. Any suggestions on which size aquarium I could get that would make for interesting behavior and room to expand their colony? 40 breeder would be the biggest I could fit in my current room. Should I go big with a 40 or am I better off with something smaller like a 20 long?

[Tlindsey]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:45 AM, Mattlikesfish36 said:

I have a group of 6 neolamprologus similis in a 10 gallon aquarium and I am looking to upgrade now that they have started to breed. I’m hoping to use this as justification to my wife that it’s time for me to build a multi aquarium rack. Any suggestions on which size aquarium I could get that would make for interesting behavior and room to expand their colony? 40 breeder would be the biggest I could fit in my current room. Should I go big with a 40 or am I better off with something smaller like a 20 long?

@Mattlikesfish36 I personally would do the 40 breeder more space although the 20 long would work as well imo.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

40 breeder sounds super fun. Lots of shells and sand and watch them rearrange it all and make it their own. 

[nabokovfan87]

Well... let's put it this way. Is the goal to have a rack of tanks (20H or 20L) or is the goal to have maybe 2 tanks, but one of them be really awesome?

I would lean towards either a 60b (4 foot long), 40b (3 foot long). or 30long (2 foot long) would be nice for a more visual centerpiece in the room because of the ability to have a really beautiful setup with plants, depth, hardscape, and SO approval (and interest). 

If you just want to give this particular fish more room then something like Irene's experiences with them would be a great resource.  I'll grab the link and attach that video here.  I do believe she had a 20L setup, but the video can confirm the details for us!

Anything for me is much better than a 10G just because my own hands working in the tank, and needing to be able to get the siphon around things without clanking too much into the walls.  20L is a really nice size tank, 20H is as well.  Any time you want to get something bigger than a 10, the real question is about the stand and the visual purpose for the tank.
 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[beastie]

I had them in 360 liters, in the height of their breeding there were around 50 or so, then the male/female ratio shifted and I was down to 13. Fickle this bunch can be. They are however, super awesome 🙂

[TOtrees]

I got an oddly-sized (for me) frag tank at a clearout sale a couple years ago, and it's ideal for shellies. It's 20" x 20" by maybe 14" tall. It's basically the same footprint as two 10 gallons side by side. For shellies I like it better than either a 15 gallon, or 20 gallon long or high. Right now I'm using it for a trio of gold ocellatus, but in the past it had an ocellatus pair and a juli transcriptus pair (both raising fry/juvies in the tank). But I'd put multis (or similis) in there in a heartbeat. 

One thing I would say is DO make sure you have your eventual tank selected and set up for viewing. Eg even if it's in a rack, make sure the long dimension is the viewable one. They're too much fun to watch to not be able to. 

And, if you have any hope of adding more species, you're going to want height. Or footprint space to create different habitats; eg the rock wall corner, the vals corner, the shells area, etc.

Also, consider how you're going to collect fish from the tank for selling or whatever when you set it up. I don't know if this is true for similis, but with my multis once they reach a certain density (which is shockingly high) they do stop breeding. A couple months after that, all those small juvies are big juvies and young adults, and you have a big maintenance issue. The solution (obviously) is to remove a bunch. How easy or hard that is will depend on your setup. My shellie tank has all removable furnishings, so I can remove everything down to the shells and substrate. This includes rocks, sponge filter, and some larger anubias on wood. The anubias roots do always pull up some substrate and dislodge a few shells when removed, but they're shellies, so substrate being disturbed is the norm. All those juvies and subadults I talked about? They don't have their own shells, so when I remove all the plants wood and rocks they swim around to evade the net, as opposed to shell-diving. Netting them is just a matter of strategy and patience. Replace the furnishings when done, and 3 weeks later presto more babies. An advantage of this is your breeders remain relatively undisturbed (because they did dive into their shells), so most/all of what you remove are youngsters. I sell all the 80% grown and larger fish, and return all the smaller ones for more growing. I'll get 'em next time 🙂

[mynameisnobody]

@Mattlikesfish36 In my experience, you should always get the largest you can afford/have the space for. 99.9999% of the time you won’t regret going larger, but most regret going too small. 
I’ve kept shellies in a species only 75 gallon for quite a while and it works really well. However, recently I’ve moved a few things around and they’ve found themselves in a 40 breeder with some Staeck endless up top. This is by far my favorite set up for them. First then footprint of the tank is quite perfect having multiple territories. Secondly, keeping them with livebearers has felt like keeping a complete new species. They are always out of their shells, the babies rarely dart back into their shells, it feels like the busiest little village. I snapped this photo 30 seconds after lights came on, so the activity hasn’t yet begun, but within 5 mins, it is a very active tank. 

Edit: photo won’t post for some reason

Edited December 18, 2023 by mynameisnobody

[Mattlikesfish36]

On 12/18/2023 at 4:23 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Well... let's put it this way. Is the goal to have a rack of tanks (20H or 20L) or is the goal to have maybe 2 tanks, but one of them be really awesome?

I would lean towards either a 60b (4 foot long), 40b (3 foot long). or 30long (2 foot long) would be nice for a more visual centerpiece in the room because of the ability to have a really beautiful setup with plants, depth, hardscape, and SO approval (and interest). 

If you just want to give this particular fish more room then something like Irene's experiences with them would be a great resource.  I'll grab the link and attach that video here.  I do believe she had a 20L setup, but the video can confirm the details for us!

Anything for me is much better than a 10G just because my own hands working in the tank, and needing to be able to get the siphon around things without clanking too much into the walls.  20L is a really nice size tank, 20H is as well.  Any time you want to get something bigger than a 10, the real question is about the stand and the visual purpose for the tank.
 

 

@nabokovfan87 thanks so much for all of this! Definitely gives me a lot to think about and has me leaning toward the bigger one 

On 12/18/2023 at 5:21 AM, beastie said:

I had them in 360 liters, in the height of their breeding there were around 50 or so, then the male/female ratio shifted and I was down to 13. Fickle this bunch can be. They are however, super awesome 🙂

@beastie this is a great looking aquarium! Thanks for sharing 

On 12/18/2023 at 8:49 AM, TOtrees said:

I got an oddly-sized (for me) frag tank at a clearout sale a couple years ago, and it's ideal for shellies. It's 20" x 20" by maybe 14" tall. It's basically the same footprint as two 10 gallons side by side. For shellies I like it better than either a 15 gallon, or 20 gallon long or high. Right now I'm using it for a trio of gold ocellatus, but in the past it had an ocellatus pair and a juli transcriptus pair (both raising fry/juvies in the tank). But I'd put multis (or similis) in there in a heartbeat. 

One thing I would say is DO make sure you have your eventual tank selected and set up for viewing. Eg even if it's in a rack, make sure the long dimension is the viewable one. They're too much fun to watch to not be able to. 

And, if you have any hope of adding more species, you're going to want height. Or footprint space to create different habitats; eg the rock wall corner, the vals corner, the shells area, etc.

Also, consider how you're going to collect fish from the tank for selling or whatever when you set it up. I don't know if this is true for similis, but with my multis once they reach a certain density (which is shockingly high) they do stop breeding. A couple months after that, all those small juvies are big juvies and young adults, and you have a big maintenance issue. The solution (obviously) is to remove a bunch. How easy or hard that is will depend on your setup. My shellie tank has all removable furnishings, so I can remove everything down to the shells and substrate. This includes rocks, sponge filter, and some larger anubias on wood. The anubias roots do always pull up some substrate and dislodge a few shells when removed, but they're shellies, so substrate being disturbed is the norm. All those juvies and subadults I talked about? They don't have their own shells, so when I remove all the plants wood and rocks they swim around to evade the net, as opposed to shell-diving. Netting them is just a matter of strategy and patience. Replace the furnishings when done, and 3 weeks later presto more babies. An advantage of this is your breeders remain relatively undisturbed (because they did dive into their shells), so most/all of what you remove are youngsters. I sell all the 80% grown and larger fish, and return all the smaller ones for more growing. I'll get 'em next time 🙂

@TOtrees thanks for all of this! Definitely makes sense to be thinking about all of those things during setup rather than waiting 

On 12/18/2023 at 8:56 AM, mynameisnobody said:

@Mattlikesfish36 In my experience, you should always get the largest you can afford/have the space for. 99.9999% of the time you won’t regret going larger, but most regret going too small. 
I’ve kept shellies in a species only 75 gallon for quite a while and it works really well. However, recently I’ve moved a few things around and they’ve found themselves in a 40 breeder with some Staeck endless up top. This is by far my favorite set up for them. First then footprint of the tank is quite perfect having multiple territories. Secondly, keeping them with livebearers has felt like keeping a complete new species. They are always out of their shells, the babies rarely dart back into their shells, it feels like the busiest little village. I snapped this photo 30 seconds after lights came on, so the activity hasn’t yet begun, but within 5 mins, it is a very active tank. 

Edit: photo won’t post for some reason

@mynameisnobodyawesome thanks for this information! I like the idea of keeping them with live bearers as well. 

[madmark285]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:45 AM, Mattlikesfish36 said:

40 breeder would be the biggest I could fit in my current room.

The 40 Gallon breeder is nice as it has 18" depth, you can plant heavily in the back of the tank and still have plenty of open swimming space in front.