Shell dwellers + knight goby?

[Phoenixphire55]

Ok, 25 gallon tank with sand substrate. I'm planning to buy tons of shells and get maybe 6 or so sehll dwellers. The only ones I can find in my area are brevis. I would love to put a knight goby in the tank as well. I would also have a bristlenose in the tank. Is this all ok? I know the knight goby would eat the brevis babies if he had a chance, but maybe they'd be fine in their shells. I think it would really look cool to have the tank with these fish in it but let me know what you think. As far as living conditions, can knight gobies and the L. brevis live in the same tank? Is my tank big enough?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

This is going off memory.


For one, most of all fish are pretty aggresive during breeding, cichlids are the worst though. If that knight goby came close to any of their shells, he would most likely be killed. If he just starts getting bit at, he will just hide in corners or anywhere else he can, lose color, get stressed out, then die. Also Knight gobies prefer brackish water tanks, so for best conditions you would have to add some salt, which the cichlids prob. wouldn't like.

The BN pleco will be just fine, so you don't have to worry about that guy. I have a BN pleco, about 2in, and a albino chocolate pleco, about 6in, and they do perfectly fine in my african cichlid setup.

You can always try to put these fish together, i'm just warning you of the high aggrestion level of the cichlids, especially during breeding.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I wouldn't want the knight goby to fade away and die, but what if I had a 29 gallon long and covered one half of the tank bottom in shells for the brevis shellies and then put some fake plant in the other half along with a rock cave / pile for the knight goby. Is it fairly likely that there will still be a problem?

If the knight goby really isn't going to work then is there another fish I could have in that tank with them? If not its fine but I'm just curious.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

That idea might work, since the cichlids will stay over on the shell side, but i'm not promising the knight goby will stay on his. Like I said you could always try, just don't expect everything to work out, it might or it might not.

I heard that the brevis are the most peaceful of the shell-dwellers, yet they are aggresive. I also found out that they cannot hold their own very well with other cichlids.

Read up on this link, I think it will help.

World Cichlids Fish profile - Neolamprologus brevis

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I guess I've decided against getting the goby so I'll just stick with the cichlids. In that link on the brevis it said that Julidochromis transcriptus would be a good tank mate for N. brevis. Do you know anything about them? Could I get a pair of those for the tank?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I don't know much about shell-dwellers compared to all other cichlids lol. I guess I can't help you there, but you can always google it

 

[LikesFish]

I am breeding Julidochromis transcriptus but you will have to have 5 to get a pair.