Neolamprologus multis

[davidjp]

Two of my multis are nipping at each other around a shell which I think one of the males always stays at. The one who is always at the shell isn't doing the nipping it's another multi doing that. Can someone tell me what behavior this is

 

[keegster803]

Put more shells in the tank, and try to separate the territories


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[keegster803]

Are the multis doing better?


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[Brookster123]

Tank size? Pics? How many shells? How many shellies??

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[davidjp]

I have 4 multis in a 10 gallon . 7 shells Huge Java fern/Java moss rock in middle of tank

 

[davidjp]

as you can see they both nip at each other. The one on the left claims that shell all the time.

 

[davidjp]

Better quality

 

[TheresaM]

In the past I bred multies, brevis, stapps, occies...personally I'd suggest more shells.

This was one of my 10g shellie breeding tanks:

 

[Eggheadfish]

Theresa - is there a general guideline on number of shells versus fish? I thought I had a fair amount, but looking at your setup clearly I don't haha.

 

[mikem691]

Theresa - is there a general guideline on number of shells versus fish? I thought I had a fair amount, but looking at your setup clearly I don't haha.

I'm not Theresa but I would say 3 is the min but the more the better.

 

[Brookster123]

Theresa - is there a general guideline on number of shells versus fish? I thought I had a fair amount, but looking at your setup clearly I don't haha.

If you check out their natural habitat there's usually mounds and mounds of shells..i don't think is there is such thing as too much, too little??yes. So long as you provide adequate structures they should do fine. It is your tank so if you don't want to look at 139 shells than dont! 136 will doo

In the past I bred multies, brevis, stapps, occies...personally I'd suggest more shells.

This was one of my 10g shellie breeding tanks:

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[TheresaM]

Theresa - is there a general guideline on number of shells versus fish? I thought I had a fair amount, but looking at your setup clearly I don't haha.

I don't know if there's a guideline...at the time I kept them I was very active at cichlid-forum.com and most folks recommended x number of shells per fish (sorry, don't remember the 'x'). They definitely like to pick and choose their shells and were quite happy in the tank, lots of breeding!

How is it going with your multies?

 

[Eggheadfish]

I've got 3 per fish in there now, and there's only four occupied so I think they're ok. Some chasing but no serious aggression, injuries, everyone is eating. I actually have hecqui
They're getting big. I'm not doing a great job sexing them, I either have 3/2 or 2/3 one of them is hard to tell. Really want some fry. I don't want to jack the OPs thread so I'll update mine later when I load some pics
Brooks- I'll probably add more. Don't know about 136 haha. The only thing I worry about is detritus getting trapped in unused ones and I don't want to turn the tank upside down to clean and get them all angry!

 

[Brookster123]

I've got 3 per fish in there now, and there's only four occupied so I think they're ok. Some chasing but no serious aggression, injuries, everyone is eating. I actually have hecqui
They're getting big. I'm not doing a great job sexing them, I either have 3/2 or 2/3 one of them is hard to tell. Really want some fry. I don't want to jack the OPs thread so I'll update mine later when I load some pics
Brooks- I'll probably add more. Don't know about 136 haha. The only thing I worry about is detritus getting trapped in unused ones and I don't want to turn the tank upside down to clean and get them all angry!

They must do a little cleaning in there?? my pleco tail fans all the poo out of his cave every so often... like.. thanks bro! Appreciate the help!

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[TheresaM]

They must do a little cleaning in there?? my pleco tail fans all the poo out of his cave every so often... like.. thanks bro! Appreciate the help!

Nice visual

 

[Freakgecko91]

I keep no less than 5 shells per breeding pair. My lone males live in my holey Rock and aren't allowed by the shells lol


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[Freakgecko91]

I keep no less than 5 shells per breeding pair. My lone males live in my holey Rock and aren't allowed by the shells lol

With that said, I have 35+ shells and 8 multis

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[keegster803]

I have 8 shells per fish, and my guys still like to nip at each-other occasionally, lol, one tries to hog all the shells


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