Last week I [showed] you guys the stalking to my new office aquarium build in today's video
We're gonna talk a little bit more about them now if you didn't watch [that] video from a few days ago
I introduced an African shell dweller to this tank
specifically x Lampre longest Similis or
Neo Lampre longest Similis or
Lamprey Longest Similis depending on which book and what year or where you're reading it from it's a Cichlid from Lake, Tanganyika
Which if you're not familiar with that?
It's the largest lake in Africa by volume not by Surface area because Lake Victoria takes that however by sheer volume
Lake Tanganyika is actually the second largest freshwater lake in the world accounting for about
Eighteen percent of the world's fresh water supply. It's an extremely deep lake however these guys are not found in the deep parts
They're found more so along the coastal areas of the lake this species
Generally in water up [to] 15 feet deep now if you go on Google images and try to find their natural
Habitat what you're going to find is nothing
but sand and shells you see there's several species of
African shell dwellers and one of the species that the symbolist often gets confused for is the
Lamprey Longest Multi Fasciitis
Also known as the Multi why does it get confused for them well at first glance they actually look identical?
However, if you know what to look for the differences are quite obvious now if you were to look at a multi fasciitis you'll notice
That the striping stops at their head it actually does [not] continue to stripe over their head in fact the striping on a multi-faceted
stops at their operculum
Which is essentially their gill cover or gill plate?
Whatever you want to call it however with the similis the striping continues over their head and over the gill plate
So above all else that's the easiest way to tell the two apart you don't need experience with both of them
You don't need two of them side-by-side
You just gotta look at their striping and if it goes past their gill plate the other species of shale dwellers are easy to tell
apart
Now that you know you have you'll probably want to know who is who do I got males or do?
I have females well unfortunately these guys are monomorphic meaning that they don't show signs of sex
However the mail gets to about twice the size of the female so you almost have to wait until they reach sexual maturity
To know what you have when they do the male's can get one and a half inches to 2 inches in length
Yes, these guys only stay small. So you now know what you have you know the sex?
What about stalking or scaping the tank well?
They kind of both go hand in hand
You see when stalking shelled weller's since they never venture much more higher than about six inches off the ground you don't need a terribly
Tall aquarium however what that does mean is that if you do have shell dwellers you can have other?
African cichlids that spent a lot of their times higher up in the water column
But when it comes to how many fish per gallon it actually goes how many fish per square foot?
Ideally it's one male per square foot
And each fish should have at least one shell I prefer to provide each fish with at least four to five shells
Giving them options and other areas of [refuge] so with one male per square foot
You can have several females with him now depending on the size of the tank and the layout of it you can most likely
Exceed those limitations, but when dealing with a smaller aquarium like this, I definitely wouldn't go much bigger
ideally you would start out with a pair in no time they'll start spawning and establish your colony for you and on the topic of
Spawning these guys are pretty easy to breed
But it all starts with the water parameters and quality of the water
Now in my opinion these guys will do fine in any type of alkaline water meaning that the ph is over [7]
why chances are the ones you're going to get are going to be tank raised locally and
The water is going to be extremely similar to your own so my suggestion
Is that if your waters ph is already over 7 don't mess with it your fish are going to appreciate
Stable parameters rather than ones that are constantly fluctuating by you attempting to give them. What's ideal
For example the ph in this tank is
7.6 when it comes to the temperature of the water
I like to keep it between 77 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 25 and 27 now these guys tend to be a
carnivore type Cichlid but in my opinion
They'll eat just about anything you offer them as long as it's a quality food designed for Cichlids
I feed these [guys] a combination of flakes and small pellets two to three [times] a day as for the quality of the water
My preference is thirty percent every three days and with such a small fish this will keep nitrates undetectable and water in pristine condition
So if you followed these basic guidelines that I've given you you'll have them spawning in no time now getting them the spawn is one
Thing getting the fry to survive is another you'll have the best chances of the fry surviving in a well established aquarium
Meaning that the shells might have a little bit of algae buildup
or perhaps a little bit of
Detritus
Or something along those lines to give the fry a chance to graze if they have to however since the fry tend to stay in
Clusters and all in one spot. They're really easy to spot feed personally
I just grind up some flakes into a powder and make [sure] that it falls in that general area that
They're in they might not eat it out of the water column, but once it lands
They'll go ahead and pick away at it
now given the fact that you'll probably have a thriving colony in no time my suggestion would obviously be to have a variety of
Shells within the aquarium
Anywheres from Half inch to two inch?
Giving the fish the ability to choose their homes that's appropriate to their body size at the time now
You don't need any specific species of snail shell however what I like to look for is the escargot type or the rounded Shell?
Although there's the do-it-yourself option where you can use PVC parts
And they will function the same they'll bury them and make them their own
now last week the number one question that I got on this fish it was how do you clean the tank you see since the
Fish customize and change the scape of the tank exactly to their likings
How do I go about cleaning it without destroying it well to be honest. I don't vacuum the substrate at all
I don't do it [for] two reasons 1i have proper circulation within the aquarium
And it hasn't necessarily been an issue just yet
The second thing is that if anything does collect in the aquarium it tends to collect over on this side
So if I do have to vacuum the substrate, I'm not destroying very much lastly since there's fry in the aquarium
I'd rather leave the uneaten food in there for them as
Opposed to removing it and since it's such a small amount of uneaten food or waste
It doesn't have the opportunity to have an impact on the overall water quality on the tank
Based on my water change schedule so with that
That this tank is actually very low maintenance and that means I spend more time enjoying the aquarium than taking care of it which is
Most important to me because watching these fish is entirely fascinating now if you remember last week
I showed you guys how the aquascape began and what it was like a day later
After they got in the tank you see these guys are constantly rearranging the aquarium digging moving the shells around
burying their shells
Creating their own little homes and of course constantly interacting with each other
The Male's displaying to each other flaring their gills there's lots of tail slapping and just constant activity
It's just an all-around
Non-stop interesting aquarium to have so if you're looking [for] a small yet
Interesting fish or you'd like to get into African cichlids yet? You don't have a really big aquarium
Give African shell dwellers a try and I think I'll end the video on that note if you have any further
Comments or questions leave them in the comments section below in a few weeks or months
I'll do another
Update on this aquarium
And let you guys know how everything is going so if you're not subscribed make sure you do if that's something you'd like to see
Anyways out that you guys enjoyed today's video. If not doing me next Thursday, and I'll have something different for you