Surprise! Shellie babies!

[Freakgecko91]

So, today i was sitting on my bed, looked over at my shellie tank (neolamprologus multifasiatus) and noticed a wiggler at the mouth of one of the shells! The mom is staying around that particular shell, and I've seen 2 wigglers. I wasn't expecting this, so I have no baby brine shrimp or anything, so what should I feed them? And should I just use a eye dropper to deposit it in the shell? Will they naturally just find food withing the sand and stuff? I just wasn't expecting this at all! So excited though! Also, how many fry do they commonly have? Thanks everyone!

 

[cyberkat]

Congratulations!!!

 

[HUKIT]

When I kept shellies their spawns were low with around 10-20 on average, if they are younger fish then I wouldn't expect more than 5-10.

I've always fed all my fry crushed up NLS flakes or NLS Grow, if your in a pinch I could send you some. Otherwise just take your regular pellets and grind them up in the coffee grinder(that's my wife's favorite).

Congrats on the spawn!

 

[Freakgecko91]

It appears that there are 3 little wigglers, all happy and playing around momma's shell while she cleans and digs out her territory lol To my knowledge, this is the first spawn for any of them. I have some hikari herbivore cichlid pellets I can grind up for now, but i don't have any of the NLS and I don't get paid till friday :/ hmm I'm sure I can make it work

 

[Freakgecko91]

Let's play "Find the Fry!" haha

 

[HUKIT]

Let's play "Find the Fry!" haha

What's kind of sand is that, play sand? It looks good.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Yeah, I've had good luck with play sand and the shellies LOVE it, it's rescaped every day

And don't worry HUKIT, tanganyikans are the only Africans I'll do I'm still a New World kinda guy haha

 

[HUKIT]

I've kept over 300 hundred species of cichlids from around the world, so trust me I've had more old world cichlids than I've had new world...I've even kept some from Madagascar!

 

[bettaowner]

Are these cichlids easy to breed? I really want to try breeding cichlids.

 

[Freakgecko91]

The madagascan cichlids are pretty cool! Shellies will always have a sweet spot in my heart though, such interesting little fish!

 

[Freakgecko91]

Mine went at it pretty easily

 

[bud29]

Could I keep any shell dwellers in a 30 gallon aquarium?

 

[Freakgecko91]

As long as you're ok with a species-only tank, theyre very limited to tank mates due to territorial aggression, but you could *maybe* get away with some zebra danios or rainbows. If you're interested in them, look up lamprologus ocellatus "gold", one of my personal favorites

 

[bud29]

I will most definitely look into it! I love cichlids

And hey, a type of fish that will appreciate my alkaline water

 

[bettaowner]

How many species of shellies are there? Is one species extremly easy to care for.

 

[Freakgecko91]

That's one of the major factors in me getting them! My pH is at like 8.2 or 8.4, so it was perfect!

And there are dozens, if not hundreds of species and subspecies and locales. Neolamprologus multifasciatus (what i have) and N. brevis are both pretty easy...

 

[bud29]

Last question and then I will shut up: for shells, can I use some large empty escargot shells? Here is a link to the ones I am looking at:
Escargot Shells, Large Empty - 24 pcs: Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food

I think I might do 6 Neolamprologus multifasciatus in my 30 gallon.....the hard part will be finding some!

 

[jetajockey]

Yes. I used regular old seashells from the craft store for mine.

 

[5x5]

Congrats FG. I've never given Shellie's much thought before, but a lot of people seem to like them.

 

[Freakgecko91]

@Bud: Yes, escargot shells work excellent! I used mexican turbo snail shells bc I couldn't find escargot shells anywhere and their natural neothauma shells are a difficult find. In a 30 gallon, you could easily do about 15 of them. They are highly social, but tend to get territorial towards new comers, so I'd reccomend buying the bulk of them at the same time. A dozen would probably be perfect cause that would allow for future generations Luckily I have three stores within an hour of me that sells/has sold them Also, remember that these are quoted as the world's smallest cichlids, they're pretty tiny! Mine are all under 1.5" and are spawning

@5x5 I know you're a fellow New World enthusiast, but these little guys are a blast and don't need a disgustingly large amount of space! a 10-20 long does perfect for a small colony! Like i said, the ocellatus "gold" are stunning!