In rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids Amateur Cichlids wrote:
you like them. The graininess you spoke of could be alleviated if you had
more light over the top of the tank when taking your photos. The aggression

I think the graininess of the Pentax photos was more a combination of my
cheap scanner and using 400 ISO film. Probably mostly the scanner though
as the photos themselves are pretty clear, but the scans were turning out
dark and grainy even on the highest quality scanner settings.

with the fry from the adults I believe you would see completely alleviated
if you added a dozen more small shells to the tank. In my 20 long with my L.
multifasciauts I have nine adults, a large bunch of fry swimming around and
over three dozen shells that are large enough for an adult to swim into
easily. I also have quite a few smaller shells that I brought back from the
lake. If you look at the page I did for my multies,
http://www.amateurcichlids.com/fish/...asciatus.shtml you'll see in the
middle one of the pictures I took at the lake showing the vast amount of
shells these little guys had to choose from. ;-) The similis live in similar
conditions in a few locations in the lake. L. similis are more apt to live
among the rocks and pebbles a bit deeper than the multies. But even in that
habitat, they have hundreds of small caves and crevices to choose from to
live in.

Shells are such an issue in this area. Very few fish places sell
appropriately shaped and sized shells. What I have now have actually been
gathered over 2 years of searching shops for shells. The conch shells were
particularly a happy find since the wild caught males are about 2" long
and need something the size of a conch shell. Part of the reason the two
rock piles were put in was when I first got the similis, I didn't have the
conch shells yet, so I was trying to give the males a choice of territory.
Turns out the fry like the rocks more than the males.

So one thing a local store that doesn't carry shells (but sells shell
dwellers, go figure) mentioned was that there was an import shop that sold
escargot shells. I checked it out but what made me leery was it said the
shells were prewashed. I know prewashed would be great if I were eating
escargot out of the shells, but I don't know if this means just a good
disinfecting with say boiling water or if I have to worry about detergents
of some sort being in the shells. Any experience using "prewashed"
escargot shells intended for human use in the tanks? I just lost most of
my paracyps due to accidental contaimination from their tank's canopy.
Don't want to go through the same with the similis. I had been planning to
use the similis in the 10 gallon as a guinea pig, but now I'm too attached
to it as well (and thinking it would make a good seed for genetic
diversity by moving a few select fry from each pair to that tank to
hopefully make a second colony of genetically diverse fish, the fact I
have only two females breeding in the main tank right now is rather
genetically restrictive).

These are great little fish and I'm glad you're enjoying them. It's also
nice of you to take the time to put them up on a webpage to share your fish
with the world. Don't let any of the criticism discourage you.

It was rather deflating. Took some of the fun out of my new toy (the
digital camera). Probably why I was so defensive. Well, that and I've
taken photo classes in the past. Practically lived my senior year of high
school in the photo lab and the only thing keeping me out of the lab right
now in grad school is the lack of privacy for my SSN in the current
registration system the university has for the on-campus photo labs, so I
refuse to register and put myself at risk for identity theft. Which is why
I finally got a digital camera instead of macro photo equip for my Pentax
and a better scanner.