My tanks and ideas

I am quite new to the forum so as a new day suggested I am making a thread to document my fish tank journey
At the moment I have a 60 l aquascaped 60 l tank with a apistogramma macmasteri some amanos and ottos. For this tank I will be getting 7 Pygmy cories.
My brother has a little 4 gallon tank that is also planted that had a betta that sadly passed away a week ago that is now housing a few neons.
I have been quite intrigued by lamprolagus occelatus and have been researching them quite a bit and would love to do a tank for them. I thought maybe doing a pair in a 70 by 40 by 20 tank with just normal pool filter sand obviously shells and maybe just a bit of hard scape. My one problem is that my water out of my tap is about 6.5 and from what I have read Tanganyika cichlids prefer harder water so what would be best to raise the ph a bit. I thought I might even take a shot at breeding them. They look like absolutely fascinating fish with amazing behaviours. I already have a decent internal filter I will be using and obviously a heater. If I were to breed them I thought I could maybe put some leaf litter in for the fry to graze on the micro organisms that will grow on it but then again it will lower the ph and I am not sure is they would like the tannins. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. When I get back home I will post some pics of my tanks that I have at the moment.

 

And would like to add I will be adding some of my easy plants like anubias jave fern and some moss and salvinia to the tank to help with nitrates

 

Excited to see the photos!

 

I am wondering if similis are maybe a beter option. I like the look of the occelatus more then the similis but I would love doing a colony and I think similis are smaller so maybe would work beter but not sure. If anybody has ever kept one of these fish which one did you like more.
And for raising the ph would chrushed coral work. Sorry I am still new to cichlids other then my apisto.

 

Hi @Andreas V

Welcome to the forum
I dont have a lot of experience with African cichlids but i must admit that i love a nice African cichlid set up

 

Never kept them my self too. My second species of cichlid I have ever kept actually.
A first for everything

 

Good Idea to get the similis instead of occalatus, I think that because of their agro nature they may need a bigger tank.. I kept Multis and brevis, both awesome fish. Get yourself some aragonite substrate, I'm no expert but the advantage of aragonite in your aquarium water is that it releases calcium and carbonate compounds in your water.....Maybe just don't do really big water changes, instead do regular small water changes...

check out my old thread:https://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/threads/my-new-project-shell-dwellers.25788/

 

The only problem I have the multies is that I think that lack some color and don’t they just kind of sit in their shell the whole day? I checked out your old thread and I think I would kind of be able to replicate your conditions.
How many multies do you think I would be able to keep in that size tank?

 

I must say I like the occelatus more. Just not sure if two fish in a 75 cm tank will be a bit boring. How many would you recommend in that size tank? Also thanks everyone for all the help

 

Oh wow ok that’s more then I thought
Should I then take them out and only keep the pair.
How much does one occelatus cost here?

 

Ok I think I will be doing a 80cm by 30 by 25 tank for a species only occelatus tank just not sure how many to do as I think like two fish in that size tank will be a bit boring
Any help would be greatly appreciate

 

Hi @Andreas V and welcome to TASA. Shellies are awesome fish to keep, doesn't matter which you decide on. As already been said, use some aragonite as substrate. This will definitely harden your water. Seeing that you have soft, low ph tap water, it will be a good idea to prepare water in advance. Have a dedicated bin for this where you can add some aragonite too. This should get the parameters almost the same. By doing smaller wc it will give them more stable conditions which they prefer. If possible get some top and middle water Tangs for the planned aquarium. Shellies stick to the bottom 1/4 of the aquarium and can get boring after a while. Hope this helps

 

So if I could do about 6 in that size tank I think it would look awesome
How do you prepare the water?