Hecqui shell dweller

Care at a glance

Overview

The largest of the commonly kept shell dwellers, and it behaves like a predator that happens to live in a shell. Keep a colony over a wide shell bed with far more shells than fish, and do not mix it with smaller shellies: it will annex their real estate and eat their fry. Pairs guard a cluster of shells rather than a single one and patrol the boundary all day. Feed small frozen and live foods, which it takes off the sand and out of the water column.

In the wild

Lepidiolamprologus hecqui colonizes shell beds on the sand floor of Lake Tanganyika, where drifts of empty Neothauma shells are the only shelter for long stretches. Keep it at 24 to 27 degrees Celsius and pH 7.8 to 9.0 in hard alkaline water, over fine sand deep enough that it can bury and re-site shells as it likes.

Good to know

Lepidiolamprologus hecqui reaches about 8 centimeters, roughly double the length of a Neolamprologus multifasciatus, and is built as a small ambush predator with a longer jaw than most shell dwellers. It is a substrate spawner that lays inside the shell. Fry are guarded within the colony and claim shells of their own quickly.

Did you know

It is what happens when a pike lineage moves into a snail shell, the neighborhood's biggest tenant in its smallest housing.

Common questions

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