I have kept a few of the shell dwellers from Lake Tanganyika over the years. Separating shell
dweller from shell has always been a problem since their natural reaction to danger is to dive
into their shell. Below I will describe how I remove shell dwellers from their shell.
I find it easiest to first set up a small bare bottom tank to use as a tank to collect the
fish as they come out of their shells. First you will need to go to your local department store
and buy an oven roast rack and some wire ties as shown in the photograph below. Fix the oven
rack into a narrow V configuration. Use the wire ties to lock the adjustable bar into the desired
position by strapping all four of the bar corners to the frame. Run wire ties from one side of
the V to the other to support the shells. Space the wire ties to fit the size shell that you
have. The wire tie spacing may require some adjustment once you start placing shells on them.
Now we have the oven roasting rack ready for shell dweller extraction.
The next step is to draw the footprint of the main tank on a sheet of paper. Carefully draw
in the location of each shell in the tank. Now assign numbers to each shell in a logical order.
This step will be very important once we are done so please take the time to do it.
Carefully remove shell number one and place it on the far left side of the oven rack supports.
Remember to hold the shell opening up so it will hold water as you are carrying it. If the shell
has holes in it try to cover them with your fingers and be quick in transferring them to the
target tank. Once you have the shells in the target tank rotate them in your hand to remove any
air that may have gotten trapped in the shell during the move. Carefully place the shell with the
opening facing down on the wire ties. Repeat this process until the rack is full, being careful
to keep the shells in a left to right numerical order.
Now comes the hard part of waiting for the fish to come out. This is easier if you know how
many fish are in each shell but I have found with young fish that is impossible. Wait for at
least two hours before removing the shells from the rack. If you know exactly how many fish you
have it is easy to count the fish on the bottom of the tank to know if they are all out. The
reason this process works is because of the shell dwellers natural instinct to be near the
bottom. The only fish that this method does not work on is very small fry that will not leave
the opening of the shell. I know of no way to remove very small fry safely.
Once you believe that all of the fish have left the shells move them back to their original
spot in the main tank using the shell location drawing that you created earlier. If you think
that other fish will hide in these shells turn them upside down until all of the shells are back
in the tank. Putting the shells back in their original spot serves a couple of purposes. First
if the adults are put back in the wrong spot it upsets the pecking order that has been
established. This can result in quarrelling and even death. The second reason is that if a
shell with small fry is not put back with the mother's protective care the fry will probably
be eaten. Repeat this process until all of the shells in the tank have gone through
this process.
I hope this article has been some help in dealing with one of the more challenging aspects
of keeping these interesting little fish.
