shell dwellers ocellatus gold

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one66model

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Aug 4, 2014
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Location
petaluma California
Just purchased 10 juvenile ocellatus gold and put them in new cycled 20 Gallon. They have been in the tank for 3 days. The seem to be very shy, lethargic, either hidden in shells or laying tight against shell. I concerned if they are well. There is some doing a little substrate moving. I have seen one adventure out to eat. Are they going through an adjustment period. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Putting 10 fish in a newly cycled tank is rough, will take some time for the bacteria populations to adjust, and a 20 is waaay too small for gold ocellatus when they start maturing. They're highly conspecific-aggressive fish, even in a 55 or 75 you'd be lucky to end up with an established pair without losing most or all the rest.
 
Check your water parameters. If the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate is high, do a water change. Dosing with StressCoat and StressZyme really helps when they are first introduced.

I agree that they would do better in a larger tank. Or you can rehome and get different shell dwellers. Brevis' work well in a tank that size.

Best of luck with the shellies, - Raymond
 
Thanks Raymond. I will try some stress coat, I hope the shipping is what stressed them. My water parameters are all perfect. I am not planning to keep 10 in the 10 gallon, they are 1/2 inch juveniles and I plan to grow them out for a few months. I have been in the hobby for 35 years and have had a couple of crashes. I posted here hoping to pick someone's brain that may know something I'm missing.
 
Putting 10 fish in a newly cycled tank is rough, will take some time for the bacteria populations to adjust, and a 20 is waaay too small for gold ocellatus when they start maturing. They're highly conspecific-aggressive fish, even in a 55 or 75 you'd be lucky to end up with an established pair without losing most or all the rest.

You're joking right? Ocellatus will do fine in a 20 long I keep multifasciatus in a 20 long, 8 of them, and they are confined to half the tank due to rockwork. That is completely false.

Brevis get as large, if not larger than brevis.....

Shellies are not an active fish right out of the gate. They typically will stick to their shells for several weeks, if not months, especially when young.
 
Just what I've seen posted about OP's experiences with gold ocellatus on several cichlid forums. I got the impression they're similar to J. ornatus cf Gombe in general disposition. I tried growing out groups of those in a 29, twice, and each time ended up with a single survivor out of 6-8 fish. One of each sex as it turned out, and they did eventually pair up and spawn in a 55.
 
You're joking right? Ocellatus will do fine in a 20 long I keep multifasciatus in a 20 long, 8 of them, and they are confined to half the tank due to rockwork. That is completely false.

Brevis get as large, if not larger than brevis.....

Shellies are not an active fish right out of the gate. They typically will stick to their shells for several weeks, if not months, especially when young.

Just to adding my own experience to this. I grew a group out and eventually had to remove the odd males that weren't able to claim territory. The odd males are easy to find and remove, they'll be the ones packed up in the corner.


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Yeah, I can imagine the odd males, my multies have done that, but not severely, my two odd males aren't allowed near shells, but do just fine on the outskirts really


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My multis after a year singled one male out and killed him over night. Not sure why. He was doing fine with the others before that night.

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Sorry to here about your loss, a way to disperse aggression in cichlids that has worked many times for me is to use "chase fish" I mean 3to5 livebearer like platys or swords, they are multilevel swimmers and also all over the tank so the territorial cichlids will work off some of their frustration chasing the chase fish instead of ganging up on one individual. I used this setup when I could only get a pair or maybe three of a cichlid I wanted to raise. Good luck I'm thinking about some Shellie's.

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Yeah, I can imagine the odd males, my multies have done that, but not severely, my two odd males aren't allowed near shells, but do just fine on the outskirts really


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Those are actually called target fish and when trying to replicate a "naturalistic" setup with tanganyikans, there aren't really any good dither species. I know personally, I prefer to stick to fish only found in Tanganyika (although I do have a bnp left over from another tank). However, if it doesn't bother a person, it is a pretty solid idea and is commonly used in some of the larger, nastier species, such as festae, dovii, umbee, etc


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Those are actually called target fish and when trying to replicate a "naturalistic" setup with tanganyikans, there aren't really any good dither species. I know personally, I prefer to stick to fish only found in Tanganyika (although I do have a bnp left over from another tank). However, if it doesn't bother a person, it is a pretty solid idea and is commonly used in some of the larger, nastier species, such as festae, dovii, umbee, etc


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I think you quoted the wrong post...lol

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