Shell dweller (multi)

Care at a glance

The shell-dwelling multi from Lake Tanganyika is one of the smallest cichlids in the world and lives in and around empty snail shells on the sand flats. It excavates the sand under and around its shell until a little crater forms, into which it retreats at any sign of danger.

So give it a thick layer of fine sand and far more empty shells than you have fish; the colony sorts out the distribution itself. It is small but fierce within its crater, and watching such a shell city take shape is for many keepers the reason to try a Tanganyika tank.

Good to know

• Territorial
• Digger — needs fine sand

Related species

• Fairy cichlid (brichardi)Neolamprologus brichardi
• Julie cichlidJulidochromis ornatus
• Benga peacock (sunshine)Aulonocara baenschi
• Keyhole cichlidCleithracara maronii
• Checkerboard cichlidDicrossus filamentosus
• Sulphurhead peacockAulonocara maylandi