Shellie grow out tank

[tolstoy21]

At some point in the near future, I'd like to start moving any new, additional neolamprologus multifasciatus to a grow out tank for selling.

I've seen people set these up with simple PVC elbows instead of shells to make it easy to net out fish as needed.

To that end, quick question -- does one need shells (or the PVC version of shells) in a multi grown out tank?

Will the absence of them cause undo stress and harm the fish? (I'm guessing yes?)

Does anyone have first-hand experience with this that can shed some light?

[FrostiesFishes]

I just colony breed them with pvc, and I can attest that the pvc makes so much easier to collect them. I did hold a small group in a tank with no shells for awhile and it didn’t seem to adversely effect them. But I didn’t have some Java ferns on wood.