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This is a question for anyone who has experience keeping Phyllonemus typus

I have six very recently acquired P. typus in a tank with a footprint of 45 cm by 90 cm, they have the tank to themselves with plenty of caves at ground level.

Do you think this is enough room once they get settled and become territorial ?

How large (approximately) would be a single territory ?

They seem peaceful enough but I know what goes on sometimes when a person is not looking so I want to be sure.

Sid... I know you like to recommend plenty of space and I agree, is this enough or minimum?

Thanks
Birger

it's OK for settling in.

but sometimes males can fight, and fight hard.
you'll know because it showes, Phyllo's that have been fighting show pale patches of skin.

apart from that it doesn't harm them much.

much more important are hiding places; at least 1 for each fish.
make sure the hiding places face you or can be checked with a penlight! this because once you see 2 fish repeatedly sharing 1 hole, you have a matching pair.

and removing the other Phyllo's is a must if you want to breed them. otherwise the disturbance might screw up your plans.

btw ditherfish are a good plan; p typus is already a very shy fish.
perfect harmless dithers for P typus are Blue Neons. they won't feed on typus-fry and they're very peaceful. also: they can be kept in this tanksize with ease, the tank is too short for Cyps.
you can easily fit in 8-9 Blue Neons in there, about 1/3 should be males. makes the tank a bit nicer to look at as well. other nice dithers include Lamprichthys, but this is not an easy fish to keep. small fishes will be eaten by the typus! if you buy 1-1,5" dithers, you're buying expensive food......


good way of conditioning them though. best way of getting typus to spawn is to feed small fish.

much more important are hiding places; at least 1 for each fish.

Got this covered, literally

and removing the other Phyllo's is a must if you want to breed them

I can split them if needed

perfect harmless dithers for P typus are Blue Neons

I guess I am on the right track,I have been looking for a reason to get either Paracyprichromis species and have been thinking this would be it

Thanks
Birger

What's the best setup for establishing and housing a breeding pair long-term?
Are they selective about mates, or can you just pick a random pair to breed?
Do the parents eat the fry?

Hey,

I do not know what is the best setup for a pair (I guess the bigger the better) but to other 2 qestions.

Yes they are selective but not that much. From 4 p. typus I have 2 pairs formed. However with WC, mature fish it is much harder to match fish. My two pairs have already spawned few times but they did eat eggs/fry after two max three weeks of carrying (damn, I wasted lots of artemia naupilius).
What I find very interesting is that my fish only share the same cave just before and after spawning. When they don't want to spawn they live in different caves and even fight with eachother (not so strong like two males but they definitelly do not look like a former pair) - here is my question: is this behaviour normal? I used to think that once two fish form a pair they will live together peacfully utill the end in one cave and this is not my case :(.

Edit:
Ok, I found this.
As Sid wrote there minimal volume of a fishtank is 50l for a pair.

Regards.