Fantastic Lamprologus ocellatus Gold this little shell cichlids of lake Tanganika is one of my favorite...very interesting upload my friend...i like so much.
Do you? Neolamprolgus Signatus are a beautiful fish! I haven't seen many of them available in Australia. You guys are very lucky in the states! Thank you for the kind words too mate, glad you like the tank
Great info, thanks! Ages ago my roommate had these fish and I've always wanted to get some. I have a 20 long cycling for them right now and I'm more excited than ever to get a group of these guys!
Jason's Cichlids yeah I’ve kept these and Meleagris (pearly ocellotus). I found over the years that I like Similis the most. I’ve tried keeping these in bigger tanks also. Had luck, not as fun to watch as in the 20-40 gallon tanks by themselves though.
Oh yes, Meleagris is another beautiful cichlid. And I really like Similis, much more striking looking fish than Multis. They aren't that common in Australia though. And interesting that your Shellies were more entertaining to watch in a smaller tank. More chance for them to interact more frequently I assume
Jason's Cichlids yeah. When their with other fish in a community Tanganyika tank they tend to be on guard of their shells more. When you keep them in smaller species only tanks they flourish.
@@rickvosburgh1422 Ok well that's good. I would have thought with their digging they would end up digging some up. Although I don't find that they dig as much and Multies.
Haha yeah Tony, not many of us but there are some Aussie FishTubers out there. They are a great little shell dwellers, heaps of character and some nice colouration too. Oh yes, Multis are great too, they are true little excavators! Very interesting little fish to watch
Cheers for sharing your experience Peter. It is amazing watching these little guys move shells around that are larger and heavier than them. Crazy, smart little excavators they are! Cheers mate, glad you enjoyed the video
@@JasonsCichlids Yeah one question are you only using sponge filters? I'm about to setup a 75 gallon to house my growing community,I'm just concerned that sponge filters take up valuable real estate for them
My Gold Occy tank is part of a central sump system. 20 tanks all connected to a central sump. I think they will be fine with multiple sponge filters but personally, for a large aquarium I prefer hiding the equipment, especially if the tank is a display tank. I'd probably run a canister filter rather than multiple sponge filters almost purely for the aesthetics.
Super informative! I love these fish, but have never owned any, because they seemed... "needy" with all their housing requirements and their meanness. However, this video made me think, I could possibly pull it off! I might have to look into getting some now. Thanks! Really enjoying all your content... and the footage quality, is pretty awesome too! Looks fantastic! 😀👍🐟
I reckon you should give them a go! They are a super interesting fish, watching them interact is fascinating. Glad I have kinda inspired you to look into them! And thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying my vids mate! 👍👍
Have you? If you are in Sydney I can sell you some mate. I originally purchased them from one of the best aquarium stores in Sydney. Labyrinth Aquarium in Campsie.
Morning Jason. I've finally stocked my tang tank. I picked up 3 occies but unfortunately picked them on size. Turns out I've got a F who's about an inch 1/4 and 2 small males at about 3/4 of an inch(gold/white tipped dorsal). The female is very dark in the body, Ive read that means she's ready to spawn? Could you tell me at what size the males should be ready to breed? Cheers
G'day mate, great to hear that your tang tank is up and running! And glad you got some Occies too! You'll be looking at them breeding once the males reach around a size of about 1.25 inches, give or take. And yes the males should have yellow/orange trim along the dorsal fin and their dorsal fin is pointed at the end. The females should have a white trim on the dorsal fin and the end of theirs will be rounded. If the tank is small, one of the males will become dominant and will eventually banish the other male to the top corners of the aquarium. He may even fight the female for a while too. But if she is large enough she might be able to hold her own until the dominant male matures and grows larger than her. If the female is ready to spawn she will get a dark, horizontal line down the length of her body like you see at the 8:20 minute mark in this video. However, if her entire body is dark that could mean she is stressed. Give them time to settle in and hopefully you'll end up with a pair.
Thanks for the reply. The female is pretty dark to be fair. But the males aren't giving her any hassle. They are at either end of the tank and she stays in the middle. She keeps visiting the males though, I'm not sure if that's mating or aggression. Wish I could post a picture. So you could see how dark she is. Thanks for the advice 🙏
How is she going? Is she still dark? It is good that they are staying in their own sections of the tank. Feel free to email me a picture mate. My email address is jasonscichlids@gmail.com. Hopefully I can help you more.
I just got 6 juviniles in a 20 long. They are about an inch long right now. I provided a large line of sight break in the middle of the tank and am hopeing to be able to keep two males in it with their respective females but I know I may have to remove some. I am really excited to raise them and am interested in knowing when they will start breeding. Two have yellow edges and spikes and three have white edged and smooth fins. I am not sure what the last one is based on their fins as they are more timid. How old are your fish when you usually sell them? Also how old are they when they start reproducing? I really appreciate any information that you may have.
I am not sure you'll be able to keep two males in a tank that size. I think the most dominant male will breed with all the females. For breeding I would say they would have to be over a year old. They are also slow growers taking over 6 months before they are anywhere near a sellable size. Hope that helps and good luck.
Just caught this vid as I'm just upgrading to a 57g(4ft) custom tank. I'm really looking for a small Tang community. Really like all the shell dwelling species. I'm guessing Gold Ocellatus would be a bit too aggressive for this size tank in a community?
They are aggressive little fish and stand their ground. Mine bite my hand when I'm cleaning their tank haha. But they will be fine in a 4 foot Tang community tank. Any aggression will be spread out among the fish.
@@JasonsCichlids That's really great to hear. I'm just at research phase at the minute. Tang communities seem to be the opposite to Malawi. Lots of territory going on. Working on a hardscape with lots of sight breaks and different shell areas. Will be checking out more of your vids later. Great stuff ! 👍
Yeah sight breaks are very good to have throughout the tank. Even for some species only tanks. But a 4 foot tank for a mixed Tang community will make a nice aquarium.
Hmm the chances of you having 6 males is slim. There are some differences you can look for between the males and females. Males generally have a yellow/orange trim on the edge of their dorsal fin. Females generally have a white trim
I’ve got a pair in a 10 gallon aquarium and the male is looking after the fry and on the other end the female has some fry too, has anyone ever heard of this. I have bred these t in the past but have never seen anything like this. I am going to put a video on here for you guys to see, pretty amazing if you ask me. I am not sure I can add a video, if anyone knows how I can add a video to comments please let me know and I will post it..
I've only ever had 1 breeding trio so not sure if its an uncommon thing. I had 1 male and 2 females. The females looked after the fry while the male stopped them from fighting with each other which was funny to watch. The male wouldn't harm the fry unless they were pushing the 1 month mark. You can always post the video to your TH-cam account and report back once you've done that.
Fantastic Lamprologus ocellatus Gold this little shell cichlids of lake Tanganika is one of my favorite...very interesting upload my friend...i like so much.
Same here Marco, I love these little guys. In fact today I have some new fry from the female at the front of the tank! Glad you liked the video mate.
@@JasonsCichlids thank you Jason!
Nice job ! Very clear filming and very informative. Thank you.
Thanks heaps mate much appreciated!
Beautiful shellies, your video footage is super clear. Great work man.
Cheers mate, that video took a lot of work to produce! Did my best to get some good shots of them and their fry
Nice video!
Thank you 👍
Very cool fish I keep Signatus Shellies!!! I could watch this tank of yours all day thanks for sharing!!!!
Do you? Neolamprolgus Signatus are a beautiful fish! I haven't seen many of them available in Australia. You guys are very lucky in the states! Thank you for the kind words too mate, glad you like the tank
@@JasonsCichlids They are fun to keep
Great info on the Gold Occie's
Cheers mate
Great info, thanks! Ages ago my roommate had these fish and I've always wanted to get some. I have a 20 long cycling for them right now and I'm more excited than ever to get a group of these guys!
That's awesome, you're going to have an enjoyable time with these guys! Hopefully you don't have to wait too much longer for the cycling to finish up
Beautiful fish. I’ve kept these in the past and absolutely love them.
They are aren't they. Have you? They are very interesting little fish to watch
Jason's Cichlids yeah I’ve kept these and Meleagris (pearly ocellotus). I found over the years that I like Similis the most. I’ve tried keeping these in bigger tanks also. Had luck, not as fun to watch as in the 20-40 gallon tanks by themselves though.
Oh yes, Meleagris is another beautiful cichlid. And I really like Similis, much more striking looking fish than Multis. They aren't that common in Australia though. And interesting that your Shellies were more entertaining to watch in a smaller tank. More chance for them to interact more frequently I assume
Jason's Cichlids yeah. When their with other fish in a community Tanganyika tank they tend to be on guard of their shells more. When you keep them in smaller species only tanks they flourish.
Thank you for the very informative video! I do have a question, what type of flow would you recommend for these little guys? Keep up the great work.
Guess what i got today. Knew youd be the man with the info 👌
Haha no way! You got some Occies huh? Awesome Blake! Looking forward to seeing the ones you have and your setup mate!
@@JasonsCichlids yeah i just miraculously saw them out of the corner of my eye at the lfs today, they were in with some multis. Only managed to get 4
@@BlakesAquatics That's perfect Blake. I started with 4 myself and now have hundreds! Glad you found some mate
@@JasonsCichlids awesome! Thats the goal
@@BlakesAquatics good luck mate!
Thanks for the information. Very well done. I have 7 of these in a 125 planted tank and so far one pair have started to spawn.
Not a problem Rick, glad you found it helpful. How you finding them in a planted tank? Are they digging much of the plants up?
@@JasonsCichlids no. They seem to enjoy hanging out in some of them.
@@rickvosburgh1422 Ok well that's good. I would have thought with their digging they would end up digging some up. Although I don't find that they dig as much and Multies.
Yay an aussie. I have thought of getting these. I have multis great fish also
Haha yeah Tony, not many of us but there are some Aussie FishTubers out there. They are a great little shell dwellers, heaps of character and some nice colouration too. Oh yes, Multis are great too, they are true little excavators! Very interesting little fish to watch
I placed mine in with Babylonia shells and escargot shells, they chose the Babylonia shells to breed in,just a footnote great video by the way
Cheers for sharing your experience Peter. It is amazing watching these little guys move shells around that are larger and heavier than them. Crazy, smart little excavators they are! Cheers mate, glad you enjoyed the video
@@JasonsCichlids Yeah one question are you only using sponge filters? I'm about to setup a 75 gallon to house my growing community,I'm just concerned that sponge filters take up valuable real estate for them
My Gold Occy tank is part of a central sump system. 20 tanks all connected to a central sump. I think they will be fine with multiple sponge filters but personally, for a large aquarium I prefer hiding the equipment, especially if the tank is a display tank. I'd probably run a canister filter rather than multiple sponge filters almost purely for the aesthetics.
hey mate, thanks for the share.... blessings boss
Cheers for the blessings and thanks for the shout out in your November video man
Very cool! New sub!
Thanks for the sub mate 👍
Super informative! I love these fish, but have never owned any, because they seemed... "needy" with all their housing requirements and their meanness. However, this video made me think, I could possibly pull it off! I might have to look into getting some now. Thanks! Really enjoying all your content... and the footage quality, is pretty awesome too! Looks fantastic! 😀👍🐟
I reckon you should give them a go! They are a super interesting fish, watching them interact is fascinating. Glad I have kinda inspired you to look into them! And thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying my vids mate! 👍👍
Ive been looking for these everywear in Australia, where did u get from if yoy dont mind me asking?
Have you? If you are in Sydney I can sell you some mate. I originally purchased them from one of the best aquarium stores in Sydney. Labyrinth Aquarium in Campsie.
@@JasonsCichlids that would be awesome but im way down on the Eyre peninsula SA
Damn. Sorry mate, if you were in Sydney I'd sell you some.
@@JasonsCichlids all good
Morning Jason. I've finally stocked my tang tank. I picked up 3 occies but unfortunately picked them on size. Turns out I've got a F who's about an inch 1/4 and 2 small males at about 3/4 of an inch(gold/white tipped dorsal). The female is very dark in the body, Ive read that means she's ready to spawn? Could you tell me at what size the males should be ready to breed? Cheers
G'day mate, great to hear that your tang tank is up and running! And glad you got some Occies too! You'll be looking at them breeding once the males reach around a size of about 1.25 inches, give or take. And yes the males should have yellow/orange trim along the dorsal fin and their dorsal fin is pointed at the end. The females should have a white trim on the dorsal fin and the end of theirs will be rounded. If the tank is small, one of the males will become dominant and will eventually banish the other male to the top corners of the aquarium. He may even fight the female for a while too. But if she is large enough she might be able to hold her own until the dominant male matures and grows larger than her. If the female is ready to spawn she will get a dark, horizontal line down the length of her body like you see at the 8:20 minute mark in this video. However, if her entire body is dark that could mean she is stressed. Give them time to settle in and hopefully you'll end up with a pair.
Thanks for the reply. The female is pretty dark to be fair. But the males aren't giving her any hassle. They are at either end of the tank and she stays in the middle. She keeps visiting the males though, I'm not sure if that's mating or aggression. Wish I could post a picture. So you could see how dark she is. Thanks for the advice 🙏
How is she going? Is she still dark? It is good that they are staying in their own sections of the tank. Feel free to email me a picture mate. My email address is jasonscichlids@gmail.com. Hopefully I can help you more.
I just got 6 juviniles in a 20 long. They are about an inch long right now. I provided a large line of sight break in the middle of the tank and am hopeing to be able to keep two males in it with their respective females but I know I may have to remove some. I am really excited to raise them and am interested in knowing when they will start breeding. Two have yellow edges and spikes and three have white edged and smooth fins. I am not sure what the last one is based on their fins as they are more timid. How old are your fish when you usually sell them? Also how old are they when they start reproducing? I really appreciate any information that you may have.
I am not sure you'll be able to keep two males in a tank that size. I think the most dominant male will breed with all the females. For breeding I would say they would have to be over a year old. They are also slow growers taking over 6 months before they are anywhere near a sellable size. Hope that helps and good luck.
Just caught this vid as I'm just upgrading to a 57g(4ft) custom tank. I'm really looking for a small Tang community. Really like all the shell dwelling species. I'm guessing Gold Ocellatus would be a bit too aggressive for this size tank in a community?
They are aggressive little fish and stand their ground. Mine bite my hand when I'm cleaning their tank haha. But they will be fine in a 4 foot Tang community tank. Any aggression will be spread out among the fish.
@@JasonsCichlids That's really great to hear. I'm just at research phase at the minute. Tang communities seem to be the opposite to Malawi. Lots of territory going on. Working on a hardscape with lots of sight breaks and different shell areas. Will be checking out more of your vids later. Great stuff ! 👍
Yeah sight breaks are very good to have throughout the tank. Even for some species only tanks. But a 4 foot tank for a mixed Tang community will make a nice aquarium.
Do you have the n. Simulis?
No Josh I don't unfortunately. I would like to try them one day though!
Never heard of em being called opis looool
Haha nar mate, you misheard. Occies. Kinda the common name they have been given. Occies.
@@JasonsCichlids yes haha I was gonna start calling them that 🤣
Lamprologus Oppilatus sounds good haha
@@JasonsCichlids by any chance are you in Arizona?
@@jesusmontana2448 bit far from there, Sydney Australia mate
Hi Jason 👋🏻. What size/age do you sell the Ocellatus? I have fry from a wild caught pair, fry started to venture out 3 weeks ago.
G'day Andreas, a sellable size is from 2cm up. They take some time to get there though. I'd say probably 6-8 months. Congrats on your spawn!
@@JasonsCichlids thank you!
What’s the sand you used
It is just pool filter sand
@@JasonsCichlids thanks for this. So I bought 6 very big occies and I’m worried they are all males as they all seems to fight one another
Hmm the chances of you having 6 males is slim. There are some differences you can look for between the males and females. Males generally have a yellow/orange trim on the edge of their dorsal fin. Females generally have a white trim
I’ve got a pair in a 10 gallon aquarium and the male is looking after the fry and on the other end the female has some fry too, has anyone ever heard of this. I have bred these t in the past but have never seen anything like this.
I am going to put a video on here for you guys to see, pretty amazing if you ask me. I am not sure I can add a video, if anyone knows how I can add a video to comments please let me know and I will post it..
I've only ever had 1 breeding trio so not sure if its an uncommon thing. I had 1 male and 2 females. The females looked after the fry while the male stopped them from fighting with each other which was funny to watch. The male wouldn't harm the fry unless they were pushing the 1 month mark. You can always post the video to your TH-cam account and report back once you've done that.
Thanks Jason.
Awesome videos! What state are you in?
Thanks mate, I'm in NSW.
@@JasonsCichlids I'd love to buy some gold occies and brevis if/when you're able to freight
Cheers mate, appreciate you wishing to purchase some of my stock. Feel free to email me at jasonscichlids@gmail.com
First
Haha you goose mate
thanks for the info. pretty usefull!
No worries mate, glad you found it useful!