I recently placed a pair of the gold ocellatus together in a ten gallon aquarium. Initially the tank housed only the female. When the male was added, things got hairy in a hurry. The video below shows the fish bickering. Eventually I put enough rockwork into the tank to break up the sight lines a little bit. The male still hounded the female. They will settle down and the male will allow the female to occupy a shell and work on a new batch of fry, but at present the lady is out of luck and out of a shell.
I finally had exLamprologus ocellatus "Gold" breed for me. I currently have two pair and a small smattering of fry that are quickly nearing sexual maturity themselves. As is typical of cichlids in general, the pair do not always get along. Everything is great during spawning. The female holds her own, protecting her nest and her babies when they come along. However, when the children are not in the picture things can get a little ugly.
I recently placed a pair of the gold ocellatus together in a ten gallon aquarium. Initially the tank housed only the female. When the male was added, things got hairy in a hurry. The video below shows the fish bickering. Eventually I put enough rockwork into the tank to break up the sight lines a little bit. The male still hounded the female. They will settle down and the male will allow the female to occupy a shell and work on a new batch of fry, but at present the lady is out of luck and out of a shell. I know cichlid lovers adore shell dwelling cichlids, affectionately referred to as shellies. How do I know? Well, if you've ever attended a swap meet held by the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association you may have noticed that any and all shellies that are up for sale seem to disappear within the first thirty minutes. I sometimes sell as a vendor at these swaps and yesterday I sold three bags of exLamprologus stappersi. They were gone before they hit the table. Not literally, but you get the idea.
I took a few pictures in the fishroom today. Here are a few shots of my exL. stappersi breeders, Neolamprologus signatus breeders and the young exLamprologus ocellatus "Gold" I purchased at the meet. They are the only fish I bought yesterday - feel free to clap if you'd like. |
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