Mr DIY Fishkeeper Joey got me as excited or nearly as excited as he is about Shell Dwellers. He currently has 2 types of Shellies in his 110 gallon (416 liters) tanks and I have only the 60 liter (16 gallon) aquarium to work around with.

Picking the right Shell Dweller

This made me go for a single fish for the aquarium and of the 3 choices, I’m trying to go for the (neo)Lamprologus Similis instead of the Multifaciatus and Ocellatus. I’ve not yet figured out for certain if the Similis works better in a small tank than the Multifaciatus, but the Ocellatus is ruled out for being too feisty for me to use.  I’ll try to make 2/3 territories, so stocking would be around 2 males and 4 females. Achieved by using hardscape and plants.

Water values

Checking the tap water in my neighbourhood, it seems it’s at 7.7 dH, and PH is around 8,14 which makes the dH low for the values that the fish need. This means no added CO2 which will have impact on the types of plants i can pick (more on this later). Adding some rocks will help keep the dH at a reasonable level and i’m going with the philosophy to not change the water values too often. So starting with some added chemicals to increase the dH and see how the fish react. Temperatures around the apartment are always on the high side.

Planting

I like plants, Cichlids don’t need plants, especially if you see the natural habitat of shellies. Also i got other aquariums to work with and sometimes i like to reuse the plants I have to trim in other tanks. I’m not someone who goes for 100% biotopes, so no need to go for anything specific to Lake Tanganyika. I do however have to take into account that the shellies will uproot any plants. So plants with Rhizomes like Java fern and Anubias.
Also no added CO2 and the lighting on the tank is still a TL tube. Also the aquarium already has side and back foam panels, which means this is always an aquarium with lower lighting. I’m left with 2 choices, Java Fern or Anubias.

Anubias is African, although not native to Lake Tanganyika as opposed to Java Fern. Also the Anubias comes in different variaties which helps with creating some visually attractive planting and creating the earlier mentioned territories. Also one of the shops i buy plants from had a mystery collection of different Anubias. Anubias it is.

So reasons for choosing the Anubias:

• Can work with high pH and high dH
• Doesn’t require CO2
• Various sizes and doesn’t require a lot of light.
• Won’t be affected by fish eating or or uprooting from the fish rescaping the aquarium.

Getting to work

The old aquarium has done well with it’s plant growth, which the Betta sure enjoyed, the Betta didn’t mind the fact that the outside glass was a bit of a mess.

I already rehomed the betta to a smaller tank, but all the plants in the tank had to go, as well as the substrate (gravel mixed with grey sand). I left the filter running to try to keep some of the bacteria in it, at least for the start. With around 10% water at the minimum when redesigning.

I rehomed the plants, gave away most of the Cryptocoryne, for which I never liked rehoming them because of the total destruction of the leaves and creating a mess before new leaves grow out. The Java Fern and wood went into the community tank. (I don’t want any pH lowering wood, only stones).

I also removed the gravel and most of the sand. Which was replaced with something like pool filter sand (beige look to it).
For hardscape i picked up some rocks that don’t affect the pH too much. Opting for Seirya and Leopard rock.

The Anubias plant set set had 2 Anubias Heterophylla. Too big for the Aquarium, so both go into another aquarium where one will be later given away. 2 Congensis for the sides, hold in place by rocks. The 2 Bonsai are glued to small rocks and the others are paired up glued to other rocks.

Most importantly, the tank need shells. Which i had kept for a long time and boiled clean and watered weeks before starting this.
I’ll try to get Neothauma shells when I can find them, but for now I’ll use the escargot shells.

After everything was put in, i replaced the filtermedia with ‘cotton wool’ to filter out the small sandy mess that was clouding the aquarium. After establishing a clear view. I put in a small cotton wool piece at the filter intake and filled the rest of the filter with Seachems Matrix. I never used that but the guys at green aqua seemed to be thrilled by it. The extra water was treated with JBL’s Denitrol.

All done

So, the finished tank. Just waiting for the fish. Everyone always wants to stick the fish right in and although the tank won’t cycle quickly without fish in it, the fish won’t be easy to get in any LFS around here. I’m going to bide my time and check out the bigger fishstores or opt for ordering them through the mail later. Oh and i also cleaned the glass on the outside :).