Confirmed species living in shell beds

Q&A About Lake Tanganyika Cichlids

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melloncollic
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Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 1:17 am

Confirmed species living in shell beds

Post by melloncollic »

Hi Pam, I've been reading descriptions of shell dwellers at cichlidae.com and I'm wondering, which species of fish are confirmed to live in callipterus shell nests? By confirmed I mean that we have some videos or pictures or some who dived has seen exact species in shell nest. I've seen some pictures and movies of calliurus, vitattus, temporalis shell living together in shell nest, and also similis together with callipterus. But what about Altolamprologus sp. "compressiceps shell" - I've heard that it's a another species in shell nest, but is it 100% sure? And what about multifasciatus and brevis - again I've heard that this species live in callipterus nests, but I have not 100% confirmation for that. And one more thing, if multifasciatus lives in callipterus nest, does it happen that species coexist in it together with vitattus shell? And finally, how many speies usually live in callipterus shell nest. Thank you in advance for the answers!
Pam Chin
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Re: Confirmed species living in shell beds

Post by Pam Chin »

Hi Melloncollic,

Even though many of these species may be in the same type habitat, they have each found their "best" way to utilize shells. Each one had to figure out a way to keep their species going and this is why we see so many different types of shell dwellers.

"Lamprologus" callipterus is found throughout the lake so it would take a lot of research to look at each site and compare the species. Typically they are located in what is called the intermediate habitat, where the rocks meet sand. The rocks and sand are vital to juvenile callipterus. The males stake out a territory and start moving shells into it. These shells may have been picked up off the sand or from another callipterus male's nest. Typically there is just Telmatochromis vittatus and "Lamprologus" callipterus in these shell piles. But of course there are always predators on the watch close by.

"Lamprologus" ocellatus also is in the intermediate area, where it claims a shell on the sand and in order to keep its shell from being stolen by callipterus, it buries the shell and its hard to even see where the entrance is. "L" ocellatus and others like it, have to find their shells, as they are spread across the sand and not in the shell beds.

Then there is a group that use the shell beds as their habitat. Here the shell dwellers are colony spawners ("L" multifasciatus & similis). There are many cichlid species that take advantage of this type of habitat. Some using the shells for spawning, others live there just to steal eggs and/or fry (Telmatochromis) and then other cichlids species may use the shells to protect their fry.

There are quite a few Lepidiolamprologus that are found near the shells as well.

Then just when you think you have it all figured out you discover that there are shell dweller species that are actually minatures. There are a couple of reasons this has happened. If Neothauma shells are not available there are other snail shells in the lake and cichlids have taken advantage of these, but it has been noted that when they live in these smaller shells, the fish are even smaller. It is their habitat that has caused it, and often when these fish are bred in our tanks, the fish reach the "regular" size, because their space is not restricted. This is also the case of the Dwarf Compressiceps, where it may be a dwarf in the lake, but in our tanks they are not. In the lake, the have taken up living in shells in some area, so this restricts their size, but they are still the same species, just a minature form.

There are a lot of shells dwellers out there and its hard to cover it all. Cichlid Room Companion is the best place to learn more!

If you have more questions or comments, just start a new message!
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