stocking suggestions and question about alto comps

[Mferko]

wife said i can get a 6 foot tank for my b-day i was wondering what new fish i should get. alrdy have white calvus, multis, goby, utinta cyps, can i add another kind of calvus or comp without them crossbreading? (or killing each other i guess)
was thinking of adding a few young frontosa in the 3-4" range (im really hoping i can track down some Mpimbwe fronts) as well as some julidochromis transcriptus, and possibly even a couple peacocks
any other suggestions?

[Brisch]

frontosa and peacocks will eat your calvus and multies, I know from personal experience

[Nanokid]

yea and the calvus/ comps are really slow growing and would get out competed. for the calvus (or comps) best to stick with small neolamps.

[Mferko]

didnt know peacocks were aggressive, i decided against fronts cuz i want a large school of cyps

[Mferko]

yea and the calvus/ comps are really slow growing and would get out competed. for the calvus (or comps) best to stick with small neolamps.

any suggestions for specific species?
was thinking adding sand sifters and cyps and 1 more species of shellie

[Nanokid]

hmm... i can tell you want i have had (basicly every tang!) , and what hasnt worked.

i had a large group of menongenys.

they were really hard to find, finally got them.. and they were just really skittish, not very colorful (untill they were spawning) i had about 3 jump. i was fed up and sold the group. the only way those things would spawn would be in a tank to there own, and since there colors are only really cool when spawning... it defeated the purpose of owning them. they were very timid, even the shellie (ocellatus) beat them up.

sand dwellers the majority) arent very colorfull fish all the time - there colors are only really nice when spawning. other then that there usually dull and this is full grown fish too. you still have to grow out the small ones, and the price of sand dwellers is so high (almost 30$ a fish) it wasnt worth it to me.

what you want to do it commit to one species. i have found that the best color comes from a species tank (well two species) you could do a large sand bed, with just melongenys, and cyps could fit in there too just fine, you would see a max in color and tons of breeding!

i too had a tank idea similar to yours... it didnt work out. this was in a 90 gallon.

i personally like the neo lamprologus much more. i have a group of tret(basicly a frontosa rip off), birchardi, leulpi a breeding pair of WC gold comps, a group of linmochromis (not the prettiest fish, but i love them!) a couple julis, the list goes one.this is in a 6 footer.

[Mferko]

which shellies other than multis are the best colony builders? (alrdy have multis deciding which other shellie to add)

what else would you add? so far its cyps, white calvus, multis, a single goby, and plecos. i heard the tretos are really aggressive tho i like their looks, i dont want any casualties :P
how about some julidochromis transcriptus?

[Mferko]

so far the only thing im going to add for certain is a school of ~30 cyps
still looking at other options as far as shellies and possibly another rock dweller or sand sifter

[Nanokid]

which shellies other than multis are the best colony builders? (alrdy have multis deciding which other shellie to add)
. i heard the tretos are really aggressive tho i like their looks, i dont want any casualties :P
how about some julidochromis transcriptus?

there are two "trets" one is tetracanthus
it means doom
one is tretocephalus and it is more the agression of a regular neolamp.

[Mferko]

ii think im going to add julidochromis dickfeldi instead of a second shell dweller (tho they do spawn in shells or caves) i like the fact that they prey on snails, it could keep the sulawesi snails in my substrate from taking over, and unlike the multi's theyl be big enough to not be seen as food when the calvus's and comps get full grown
also some red compressiceps