75 Gallon Tanganyikan Setup

[RTCfan86]

Looks good, the only potential issue I see is that the rock piles and shells are near each other which means the Shellie’s and Julie’s may be near each other. Try it and see but you may have to redo it so the shell area is separated from the rocks if they clash. If you look at my vid, I had the shells on one side and rocks on the other for that purpose.

Thank you for the reply/input. I tried to spread the rocks out thinking that if they were all on one side, that would mean the Julies would not allow another rock dweller. Maybe I’m wrong about this. But I’ll definitely change the scape though if the shell dwellers turn out to be too close for comfort.

 

[DJRansome]

I would not do the singles...especially not the caudopunctatus.

 

[Milingu]

I just finished the scape today…a little cloudy still from all the movement. I will be adding another 10 or so shells tomorrow when I add my Multis (I have 5 in another tank). The plan is to also add about 4 Julidochromis Transcriptus and maybe the 1 Caudopunctatus fishguy1978 mentioned, and a Calvus. Do I have enough rocks here?

View attachment 1536445

The amount of rocks is ok. But the rocks are too small to provide proper caves for A. calvus. They also prefer more vertical caves. A. calvus also tend to be a bit slow when it comes to occupiing territories. If want to add all the fish at the same time there is a good chance they will never be able to compete with the Julidochromis.
I would opt for a pair of coudopunctatus instead of a calvus. N. caudopunctatus are quite opportunistic and will just breed wherever they can manage to hold a small territory. Sometimes even an empty corner of the tanks is enough for them to breed.

 

[RTCfan86]

I would not do the singles...especially not the caudopunctatus.

Ok, I’ll avoid the singles.

 

[RTCfan86]

The amount of rocks is ok. But the rocks are too small to provide proper caves for A. calvus. They also prefer more vertical caves. A. calvus also tend to be a bit slow when it comes to occupiing territories. If want to add all the fish at the same time there is a good chance they will never be able to compete with the Julidochromis.
I would opt for a pair of coudopunctatus instead of a calvus. N. caudopunctatus are quite opportunistic and will just breed wherever they can manage to hold a small territory. Sometimes even an empty corner of the tanks is enough for them to breed.

Thank you for this information. I thought the Caudopunctatus would fight with the Multis for shells?

As far as the caves not being large enough, are you saying they should have taller openings to accommodate the taller body of the Calvus?

 

[RTCfan86]

The amount of rocks is ok. But the rocks are too small to provide proper caves for A. calvus. They also prefer more vertical caves. A. calvus also tend to be a bit slow when it comes to occupiing territories. If want to add all the fish at the same time there is a good chance they will never be able to compete with the Julidochromis.
I would opt for a pair of coudopunctatus instead of a calvus. N. caudopunctatus are quite opportunistic and will just breed wherever they can manage to hold a small territory. Sometimes even an empty corner of the tanks is enough for them to breed.

Here are a couple taller openings in the large rock pile on the left side that are hard to see from the original picture. Are these ok? They’re about 3-4” tall openings.

 

[Milingu]

N. caudopunctatus will breed in shells if they can. But they are also fine with caves, flower pots, the aquarium glass or any other smooth surface. N. multifasciatus is way more prone to breed in shells though it will also breed in other structures if no shells are availiable. Normaly the multifasciatus will outcompete the caudopunctatus when it comes to occupying shells.

Yes, calcvus prefer taller openings.
It may not be suitable for a true biotope tank, but large sea snail shells have proven to be good caves for calvus. And in my opinion they still look nice in a lake Tanganyika setup.

The openings shown are tall enough for females but thats all about them. I don't think they will work because they don't dont provide proper cover from the back and they are not on the ground. My calvus never used any elevated caves.
And they are not clearly separated from other caves. Most cichlids living in the rock pile will just consider them as part of their territory. In your case the chances are high that most of the rocks will be Julidochromis territory leaving no space for calvus or other rock dwellers. That is one of the reasons I would prefer the caudopunctatus because they will just occupy whats left. Or another option would be to go only with 2 species.

 

[RTCfan86]

N. caudopunctatus will breed in shells if they can. But they are also fine with caves, flower pots, the aquarium glass or any other smooth surface. N. multifasciatus is way more prone to breed in shells though it will also breed in other structures if no shells are availiable. Normaly the multifasciatus will outcompete the caudopunctatus when it comes to occupying shells.

Yes, calcvus prefer taller openings.
It may not be suitable for a true biotope tank, but large sea snail shells have proven to be good caves for calvus. And in my opinion they still look nice in a lake Tanganyika setup.

The openings shown are tall enough for females but thats all about them. I don't think they will work because they don't dont provide proper cover from the back and they are not on the ground. My calvus never used any elevated caves.
And they are not clearly separated from other caves. Most cichlids living in the rock pile will just consider them as part of their territory. In your case the chances are high that most of the rocks will be Julidochromis territory leaving no space for calvus or other rock dwellers. That is one of the reasons I would prefer the caudopunctatus because they will just occupy whats left. Or another option would be to go only with 2 species.

Thank you very much for this information, as it is very helpful. I’ll see what I can do as far as adding more separation between caves, a backing to the pictures cave, and a couple larger shells. I’d really like to make the Calvus work, but only in the right conditions.

 

[fishguy1978]

More shells, you can never have to many.
I think you have confused S multipunctatus with the N. caudopunctatus.

 

[RTCfan86]

More shells, you can never have to many.
I think you have confused S multipunctatus with the N. caudopunctatus.

I added some more shells this morning and have 25 now. I was thinking of the Caudopuncs…from the research I did, I was hearing a lot about how they can fight the actual shell dwellers for shells. Happy to hear different reviews here though.