55 Gallon LiveBearer Tank

[Sphearion]

55 Gallon Tank full of Easy to breed fish

I have a 55 Gal Livebearer tank (not selling or giving away fry) It has been cycled (fishless) and I went to the LFS to pickup some live bearers I basically got a set 3femals and 1 male of each of the following, Guppies, Swordtails, platies, and mollies.
my platies and guppies have already dropped a load of fry in the last 2 days which im excited about so far (i just hope more get eaten or my 55gal will fill quickly.

On to the actual question :

I was reading about Neolamprologus multifasciatus and wondered if these would be something I could add to a sparsely planted live bearer tank with the above fish already in there. I know i would need to change at least part of the tank to be a sand bottom (i have used playsand in the past so thats not a problem) and add shells for them..

as I get more money for plants I intend on buying a 55gal aquascaping package or if I have half sand bottom i would go with a smaller package of plants. from (freshwateraquariumplants.com) whom I have bought plants from in the past.

any input is appreciated.

 

[BrianNY]

That's an interesting mix Sphearion. As the multis are shell dwellers, shells become more important then sand. I would imagine that the live bearers wouldn't infringe to badly on each others territory and be fairly peaceful. Good luck with the tank.

 

[Sphearion]

Well, I have not gotten the multies yet and wont until i get several more replies stating basically the same thing, as well as do alot more research on the multies themselves.

 

[JeffreyL]

Well, a lot of African cichlid fans might be aghast, but it may work. lol You should be able to tweak the water parameters to suit both. Multies and the livebearers you mentioned are both pretty tolerant of water parameters outside their "ideal"

The multies, if they breed, will take over any bottom area with shells. And maybe a bit more. lol One thought, they tend to move sand away from their shells. Often leaving the shells sitting on the bottom of the tank. So they might do some serious aquascaping.

Another thought, I have tried to use guppies as dithers for SA dwarf cichlids in the past. Did not work well as the guppies seemed too bloody stupid to stay out of the apistos breeding territories. Really stressed the poor male apistos. Now with a bigger tank and more aggressive multis, it might be okay.

Good Luck if you try it!! And we want pics.

Jeff

 

[Sphearion]

if I try it I will surly post some pics