Brevis Shell Dweller

Care at a glance

Overview

You can keep a pair or small group in a tank around 60 liters, as long as there are more shells than fish. They stay near the bottom around their shells and are peaceful overall, but they'll defend their patch of sand from anything that comes too close. Feed small pellets and flake plus frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. Tankmates should stay up in the water column and leave the sand to them.

In the wild

The brevis shell dweller lives over sand in Lake Tanganyika, where it takes shelter in empty snail shells. That shell is the whole point: scatter a few empty escargot or snail shells across a sand bed and each fish will pick one to live in and breed in. The lake is hard and alkaline with a high mineral content, so keep pH from 7.5 to 9.

Good to know

Neolamprologus brevis is one of the smallest shell-dwelling cichlids in the family Cichlidae, reaching about 6 cm. It's a substrate and shell spawner with stable wild populations. Unusually for shell dwellers, a pair often shares a single shell rather than each keeping its own.

Did you know

A threatened brevis will dive into its shell and back in so only its face shows, and it can pull sand up to partly bury the opening. When a pair shares one shell, the smaller male and the female will both squeeze into the same home.

Related species

• 

  Caudopunctatus

  Neolamprologus caudopunctatus

  2.8 in (7 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–79°F (24–26°C)

• 

  Similis shell dweller

  Neolamprologus similis

  2 in (5 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Multie shell dweller

  Neolamprologus multifasciatus

  1.8 in (4.5 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Cylindricus cichlid

  Neolamprologus cylindricus

  4.7 in (12 cm)29 gal (110 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Five-bar cichlid

  Neolamprologus tretocephalus

  5.9 in (15 cm)53 gal (200 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Lemon cichlid

  Neolamprologus leleupi

  4.5 in (11.5 cm)20 gal (75 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)