Multies And Ornatipinnis In This Same Tank?

Hello to everyone.

My online seller has (Neo)lamprologus ornatipinnis "3.5 cm" (1.4 inch) for sale at 4.50 euro a fish, 25% cheaper than my (already cheap, by Italian market standards) multies.
Although until the end of May outdoor temperatures will be too low for the 2 day trek they would have to make from the north, and although it remains to be seen if by then any ornatipinnis will be available, I'd like to know:

Can the two species live peacefully together in a 32"x12"x16" tank?
According to the information I have googled up - hopefully providing the following links is permitted,

https://www.bostonaquariumsociety.o...logus-ornatipinnis&catid=42:general&Itemid=74
ornatipinnis males normally reach 2.5-3 inches. My multI male seems to have ceased growing at about 1.4 inch. There are also two females.
Ornatipinnis are described as utterly shy. But would they be shy towards the multies, which are so much smaller, or bully them?
On the other hand, sometimes I watch YouTube videos where Tanganyika species of different sizes are kept together in the same tank.

I'd like to see the multies spawn. Would the presence of their larger cousins in the same tank make that less likely?
In the second article that I have linked in it is said that ornatipinnis fry, contrarily to multies seem to display cannibalistic attitudes, whereas adult ornatipinnis do not eat their offspring. Would the yet unborn multies be at risk?

Thank you in advance for any answer.

 

I think they will be fine after establishing who is boss and where territories lie. I suggest you "section off" half the tank for one species and half for the other, so two separate groups of shells with some sort of visual barrier between.

If they behave as I would expect, the two species will not want to be in the same space. I know my multis actively guard their shell pits from the larger OB peacock fry and they always win. I'd stick with one male of each species with a few females. This will make sure you don't have extra males of either specie trying to take over the neighboring specie's shells. I've had to create two separate shells pits in my 29gal multis tank because of an extra male, oddly enough the single juvenile raised in that tank has taken to the rival male's territory rather than staying with it's parents.

 

I think they will be fine after establishing who is boss and where territories lie. I suggest you "section off" half the tank for one species and half for the other, so two separate groups of shells with some sort of visual barrier between.

If they behave as I would expect, the two species will not want to be in the same space. I know my multis actively guard their shell pits from the larger OB peacock fry and they always win. I'd stick with one male of each species with a few females. This will make sure you don't have extra males of either specie trying to take over the neighboring specie's shells. I've had to create two separate shells pits in my 29gal multis tank because of an extra male, oddly enough the single juvenile raised in that tank has taken to the rival male's territory rather than staying with it's parents.

Thank you, that sounds encouraging.

Someone once gave me some vulcanic stone that in the past I used as a barrier for a kind of terrace. Until the multies came, and with them the end of any terrace in the tank ....

What fish is meant by "OB peacock"?

 

Orange blotch or orange blossom peacock cichlids. I have fry from both males growing out.



Technically they shouldn't be with shellies but the 29gal is also a growout tank for the time being.

 

Wow, beautiful fish you got there!
They remind me of a pair of fish I had decades ago. Back then they were called Haplochromis burtoni. Scientific names of fish have changed so much since then.

 

They certainly do change the more we find out about a species. You are talking about a Victorian hap? I have one as well but no idea what the species is, he’s an interesting fish for sure. He actually killed my old rock kribensis in my profile picture.

On the other hand, OB peacocks don’t even have a scientific name because they are hybrids. Somewhere along the line, peacocks were bred to a species of mbuna to get the blotches.

 

You are talking about a Victorian hap? I have one as well but no idea what the species is, he’s an interesting fish for sure.

I guess they may qualify as such, see this WikI entry with picture, that's the fish I am talking about: .
After I wrote reply #5 I googled them up, for I was curious to know how they're called today: Astotilapia burtoni.
I was no little surprised to find that there are feral populations in Australia, where if I am not mistaken they're still called Haplochromis burtoni.
When I was a teenager - long, long ago & - there were few African cichlids of 5" and less around. A friend of mine had Haplochromis multicolor - now Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor. I had a 40"x20"x20" tank back then and one day after I came back from school I saw the burtonies spawn. Only very recently I discovered to my great surprise that there are also mouthbrooders among the labyrinth fishes. The burtonI male's behavior, I found, was quite boisterous. There were also a few species of Pseudotropheus in the fish stores, but they were prohibitively expensive. A very generous friend of mine gave me one adult male Pseudotropheus zebra - they were called Nyassa cichlids - for my birthday. Quite a boisterous fish, too. But he had that wonderful blue color. My burtonies were no longer around. The female had died of dropsy and the male had followed her some time later. And that was about all the smaller African cichlids that were available.
My high school was almost next to a fish store . That may have been one reason why I liked to go to school.

He actually killed my old rock kribensis in my profile picture.

That is too bad! BTW, I thought the fish in your profile picture was a kind of burtoni.

On the other hand, OB peacocks don’t even have a scientific name because they are hybrids. Somewhere along the line, peacocks were bred to a species of mbuna to get the blotches.

I keep wondering if without human intervention the same genetic mutations would have occured.