Breeding L. Ocellatus "gold"

[IrishPunk4748]

Hi,
I have done some research on these L. ocellatus "gold" after reading about them in TFH. I was considering getting some myself and was wondering if there was any particulars i should know about them. I work at my LFS and can get my boss to get some if availible. Are they sensitive to water conditions. In a 29G tank i could have one male and how many females Sinse i know they prefer to breed in groupings of a male and his females in breeding. I also know that this is a shell dweller so any suggestions on what type of shells i could use that are more readily available than thier natural habitat. I live in New Jersey in a suburb of Philadelphia. Any help from someone more experienced or read up on these beautiful fish would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Tom

 

[jayjay]

i know quite alot of info about l. ocelatus, so i'll tell you what i know. they need a sand substrate to see them at their best. they love to move their shells around no matter what the owner thinks of this lol. they've been known to pick their shell up to move it. it's also a good idea 2 block lines of sight towards other fish because some individuals can be aggressive you can do this by putting rocks in between their territories which are usually only up to 10cm in diameter rocks can make this smaller. males can be quite defensive of their females and are know to block them in a cave with the males body blocking the opening of the shell somtimes for long periods of time. when breeding they have been known to bite an owners hand and draw blood even though their so small. if you plan to keep them with other species make sure the others are not to aggressive because some species sometimes confine the little 'shellies' to their shell. make sure you have more than 1 shell per fish because some of them can be a little greedy and take a few this is done by the males somtimes also if there are any disputes the loser often has to give up their shell to the winner. as for breeding them theres a really long explantion of what happens but this post is getting to long already so i'll give you the basics. the female takes care of the eggs after the male briefly fertilises them. they need really small foods to start with but after a few weeks they can be feed baby brineshrimp. so about how long this post is but its better to tell you evrything

 

[mamafish68]

great occie pic!

 

[jayjay]

nice pic mamafish.

is it from the internet or taken yourself?

i'm thinking of maybe setting up a 20g for some any thoughts on that?