10 gallon cichlid tank

Taratron · Post by **Taratron** » 14 Jul 2004, 05:34

Am trying to convince my mom for just ONE more fish tank. See, we have a wrought iron stand in our bathroom, good for up to 20 gallons. It currently has a 10 gallon fry tank on it, but a killi club member mentioned to me that I could add another 10 to the bottom of the stand; has anyone tried this, and how well does it work?

I'm finally looking into cichlids: shelldwellers, to be precise.

So the tank would be either a 10....OR, if I can swing it, setting up a 20 on the stand, and using a tank divider to halve it. Fry on one side, cichlids on the other. Would that be preferable to two 10's?

Finally, what shelldwelling species would be best for either a 10 or half of a 20? Looking for someone where I can really watch that adorable parenting behavior of cichlids, and a small species, obviously! One where the parents don't attack and eat the fry when the babies are out of their immediate care.

Plus, please do keep in mind I've never kept cichlids before; my most aggressive fish yet has been my male BN pleco, whose claim to fame is still that he slashed up and nearly killed two Brochis cats.

Post by **Barbie** » 14 Jul 2004, 07:36

If you're just going to keep a pair of shellies, I would have to recommend Neolamp. brevis, personally. Multis would also work, but you'd miss out on the colony behavior in just a 10 gallon tank. The brevis will not predate their fry,and even older fry will not predate the younger generations, IME. I once made the mistake of setting up 3 10 gallon tanks for 3 different pairs that I ended up with from juveniles I'd purchased. 6 or 8 months later, when I decided it was time to sort through the tanks and sell down some fish, I was shocked to find I had well over 200 fry. I had assumed I'd have more predation than that, and with the small rocks and shells I'd put in the 2 back corners of the tanks, more fry were hiding than I'd realized. The gentleman I'd offered to trade the fry to was shocked to say the least when he received almost 200 fry in trade for the 6 wild caught S. petricola, hehe. I had no other outlet for them, and to this day I'm afraid to ask him if he still has some ;).

Barbie