Shelldwelling Cichlids

Shells for shelldwelling Cichlids

Fischhaus Zepkow: www.mollusc-shells.com

Surely it would be preferable to offer exactly the same shells to the Cichlids they inhabitate in Lake Tanganyika or Malawi. But because these shells are not available for us, we have to be content with the second best solution and try to find fitting shells for the different species in our pisciculture. In our tanks, we prefer the solid marine shells because the often used shells of the grapevine snail (Helix pomatia) are very thin and disintegrate relatively fast in water.

The table shows a list of shells we found useful for the differnt species of shelldwelling Cichlids from Lake Tanganyika; we don't keep the Malawi species, so for them we used our best guess.

In case you want to order the shells you can do so in our shop.

Cichlid	Shell
Altolamprologus compressiceps Sumbu	Melongena corona, Melongena melongena
Altolamprologus compressiceps	Melongena patula
Altolamprologus calvus	Melongena patula
Lamprologus boulengeri	Rapana rapiformis Tonna dolium, galea, sulcosa Turbo petholatus (lg), Turbo marmoratus (sm)
Lamprologus kungweensis	Babylonia areolata, spirata, zeylanica possibly Helix pomatia possibly Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Lamprologus meeli	Rapana rapiformis Tonna dolium, galea, sulcosa Turbo petholatus (lg), Turbo marmoratus (sm)
Lamprologus meleagris	possibly Achatina fulica, Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Lamprologus ocellatus	possibly Achatina fulica, Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Lamprologus ornatipinnis	possibly Achatina fulica, Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Lamprologus signatus	Babylonia areolata, spirata, zeylanica possibly Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Lamprologus speciosus	possibly Achatina fulica, Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Neolamprologus brevis	Achatina fulica, Helix pomatia Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Neolamprologus multifasciatus	Babylonia areolata, spirata, zeylanica Helix pomatia, Natica vitellus Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Neolamprologus similis	Babylonia areolata, spirata, zeylanica Helix pomatia, Natica vitellus Turbo argyrostomus, chrysostomus, petholatus, reevei
Pseudotropheus lanisticola	Rapana rapiformis possibly Tonna dolium, galea, sulcosa (smaller shell) possibly Turbo marmoratus
Pseudotropheus livingstoni	Melongena patula possibly Tonna dolium, galea, sulcosa (larger shell)

Should there be any questions or suggestions, please contact us and let us know.

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