Shelly setup

I am on holiday in East London and my cousin invited me to go cockle hunting with him tonght. The tide was a bit high, but we were able to get a few legal size cockles. He is going to cook them and I am getting their shells to help in my effort to set up a shelly tank. They will be in my 2 ft tank, it has a PenPlax internal filter rated for a 60 litre tank.

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could you please help me with:

1. Will these shells work for shellies?
2. Is there a species that is easier to keep than others?
3. The water in Jeffreys Bay is quite hard, is there anything I need to add to keep it hard?
4. pH is normally between 7 and 7.5, what is a safe way to get the pH up without using chemicals?
5. I saw someone recommended keeping guppies / platies with them in a Sera magazine, has anyone tried this and should this work?
6. What kind of sand do I need for the tank? Would washed & boiled sea sand work?



I know I have asked a lot of questions, thank you for your time and helpful answers.

 

hi 10i,

sounds like you have everything you need already.

1) I have the very same shells in my shellie tank, they are not ideal I suppose because they are too heavy for the shellies to move but they make great homes for them.
2) I have N. Brevis, attractive little guys and a breeze to keep in my experience.
3) Best to have it tested to see what you are dealing with, the cockle shells will raise/stabilise the hardness over time.
4) The pH is ok for them, personally I wouldnt mess with it since that would require effort to maintain and fluctuations can be worse than a slightly less than optimal pH.
5) I keep leopard danios with my shellies as dither fish. This has really made a positive difference in the tank. I have some juvenile leo. danios looking for a good home in a couple of weeks, more than willing to donate them if you are able to collect.
6) Most LFS in PE (not sure about Jbay) sell pool filter sand per kg and you dont really need much for your size tank.

Some things I have learnt:
Shellies do not like large water changes but prefer smaller, frequent water changes. This would stop major changes in the water hardness from occuring.
Keep a ratio of 2 shells to 1 shellie (as a minimum) they do like to change homes and if yours pair, they might relocate to 2 shells near each other or even the same shell (depends on the species)
Keep a bit of space between each shell
These buggers are fiesty, keep more females than males (hard to tell when they are young)
Java fern and anubias cope well with the hard water conditions

Cant wait to see your setup and I hope you find my info usefull. PM me about the danios.
Regards
Eugene

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I am glad about the shells, we were 3 and got about 4 cockles each so I have lots of shells.

The pet shop in Jeffreys (to my knowledge does not sell pool filter sand), I will try and get some on the way home (bearing in mind that we have a poodle in the car and my mom might want to go straight home).

Ja, it's hard to keep more females than males when you can't sex the babies

I am really bad at keeping plants alive ... will try with the fish first and then move towards that.

Thanks for the offer for the danios. I have 9 guppies that I have been raising for this purpose. Don't know what to do with them otherwise.

Thanks for all your help! I need to find new homes for my neons and bronze cories though first, have placed an advert in the Think Local and on this forum. To really appreciate neons you need a huge school and for that you need a large tank.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

update: neons and cories sold, forgot shells in east london. now to get the sand. i read online that cichlid salt is needed, the water here is hard making it difficult for people to keep discus, do i need to buy it?

 

sorry if the previous post was abrupt, i surf on my phone, had a long post typed out and when i clicked post, the forum went down. retyped it shortly and that one went up. i saw ocean basket have a special on escargot, i am going to ask them i want mine very rare and see what they say. should work after a good wash. i have also read that some use coral sand with shellies. is this available in lfs? or should i rather pick up some grit, mash it with a mallet and use that?

 

ok, some more progress. got 4 kgs of coral sand today in port elizabeth. now all that remains is the shells and then i can get the fish!

 

Aww damn, pity you didnt tell me you were coming thru to PE, could have met up. Next time. Cant wait to see pix

 

i came through for the morning with family, will let you know next time i come to pe.

 

I have quote a few cockle shells if you interested? I can send them up to Jeffs tomorrow, no charge.

 

Thats a kind offer, my aunt has already posted me the shells i left behind. i have decided to keep my guppies for a while before i move on to shellies, will see how i feel in a month or two. wade, what fish do you have?

 

I used to keep Malawi's untill i broke down the setup to get a bigger/better tank. I used to have a 1.3m tank with built in sump, i now have a 1.6m tank with 2ft sump(my 3ft tank wouldnt fit in the cupboard). At the moment i only have guppies and 4 malawi fry(from my tank at work) in the tank. Must still post some pics of my new setup.