This tank has 4 3/4" or so Neolamprologous multifasciatus). They are very shy, but cute. They are light tan with slightly darker vertical stripes. Some have rather large whitish bellies. I'm hoping those are females. I originally bought these fish at the TFCB Annual Auction in 1998. There were 4 in the bag, and David and Janine Banks has brought them in. I have a picture of a Neolamprologous similis on a calendar at work, and have always wanted to keep them. I brought them home and put every shell I owned in the tank. The fish disappeared. Every once in a while, I'd see one. I started wondering whether they were even alive...
In late May, we moved all the fish to the house we had just bought. We took the opportunity to try to find these little fish. We took ever shell out of the tank, and two fish were left. We had seen two for a while, and assumed the other two had died and gotten whisked away by the filter. We knew that these fish had a reputation for wedging themselves into shells, even when all the water was drained out of them, so we took each shell and emptied and filled it several times, shaking it.. no other fish came out. We put all the shells in a bucket with a bit of water, and the fish in another bucket for transport (we didn't want the fish to be crushed by sloshing shells during the 15 minute car ride).
When we arrived at the house, we had ten billion tanks to set up, and we spent as little time on each as was safely possible, in order to go to bed before a zillion o'clock. We returned the fish to their tank, and placed each shell back in. Two fish were in there, and we left it at that. We only hoped that we had a male and a female. We hate losing fish, especially fish that were given to me by friends, so we were a bit sad, but too tired to do anything more about it.
The summer went by... the little shell dwellers had been placed in a humble little microwave oven shelf, near the floor, with no light except the ambient light from other tanks. Being so busy, we rarely looked into the tank except to feed the fish and for the occasional water change. Of course, the mere act of approaching the tank would cause the fish to disappear completely, so we never got a good look at them.
In late August, I was randomly struck by a twinge of guilt, realizing that I had completely ignored these little fish, and lied down on my belly by the tank. I stared into it. I saw a mouth peeking out of a shell. Eyes. Pectoral fins, hovering... I noticed some more movement, and saw the upside down reflection of another, under a larger shell, in a different part of the tank (it had dug a clearing in the 1/2" of fine gravel, exposing the clear reflective bottom to the tank). I watched them, wondering what their genders were, wondering if the fish in the shell was a female guarding a nest. I thought I saw another shadow move... a third fish, and a big one, dashed from one shell to another! After a few minutes of staring and grinning, I saw a fourth fish! I never saw more thna 4 simultaneously, so I can only figure that those are the original 4 fish (They're all about the same size). It's possible that the two we saw before had fry, and two made it, but I don't think that's the case.
I'm thrilled. Perhaps these fish will inherit the rainbow tank when they are promoted to the big planted tank - at least then they'll have a glass tank with a light and some mossy stuff to call home. Until that time, I'll be spending a bit more time lying on my belly. :-)
In December of 1998, bad luck struck, and it struck hard. The heater malfunctioned and the temperature dropped, along with the filter malfunctioning (the impellar just randomly stopped working, ugh!). I found two bodies, and two very agitated fish. Another died a few days later. Now I only have one little lonely fish, who I think is a female. I am desperately looking for some companions for her. This is an awesome fish, and I'd love to keep a little family of them going. They're cute, a pretty warm coffee/tea colour with endearing little stripes, and I'm really just "into them". Here's a picture of my lonely female (terrible photo, I know, but it's an old digital camera with a fixed focal length..). The light tan blob in the shell is the female fish, can't you tell? Err!!
