Lamprologus Ocellatus (Shelly) breeding (bulldozing) photo log

[John58Ford]

Congrats. Those babies are so cute. What are you feeding them?

I've always fed my fry "mulm" basically ground up whatever the adults eat, sightly over fed so it collects in corners with other tank detritus. I feel this only works right due to my husbandry being very "let nature sort it out" but heavy handed in water chemistry. The snails (and other bottom/filter feeders where appropriate) are the balance point, too many and the fry starve, too few and the water goes foul and algae builds.

This tank eats a varied diet of:
Hikari: vibra bites, sinking cichlid gold (mini), sinking carnivore pellets.
Tetra: color xl tropical granules, color flakes, bettMin flake Medley (with krill), tetraMin tropical granules, pleco wafers.
New life spectrum: Betta xs pellets, cichlid regular pellets, grow small pellets.
Aqueon: tropical granules.
DIY baby food based Snello with quite a few custom ingredients including calcium carbonate, krill powder, fish meal, and some other odd ball stuff.

Basically I keep a fish store worth of food with varied sinking properties to hit target areas and enough with high and low phosphorus etc that I can adjust the tanks diet as a whole for optimal plant growth without "fertilizer" as well. If the fish can't eat it, I don't put it in the tank.

My GBRs used to get egg yolk powder but other than them this is how I've managed all my breeders.

 

[John58Ford]

Fry seem to be developing well. There are 3 distinct age groups in the front center of the tank now. I think it's likely that once the fry are free swimming the mothers have been moving them from the outlying shells to the center homestead. Lots of bowls and shells for them to hide in there. I have seen breeding and fry in the far left shells but overnight I have seen those shells left empty and the numbers in the center bolstered. The smaller of the females in the breeding trio tends to stay low and center with the babies, the larger female is constantly luring the alpha to outlying shells, successfully breeding, then within 3 days of hatch she appears to move the babies and goes to hang out in the beggars corner high in the tank where the non-breeding fish trend to wait for food. The alpha gets some unique coloration or lack of color after he spawns, looking almost patchy.

Spoiler: Whole tank progression

Day 1 cloudy buffers and fresh sand

Today(day 51?): During feeding


it's cool how much anubias likes the Tanganyika water, I've had some that grew a leaf per month in soft water, this one has grown a whole new layer already. The fish have moved quite a few shells but I'm thinking we may not see mountains until we get a true colony out of the trio.

 

[DMD123]

That is really awesome! Im so glad they started breeding! I dont know what it was but they never really used the shells with me and were always out swimming around. The alpha male was a huge bully and the other fish didn’t hide from him, lol.

 

[John58Ford]

Just some photos. The breeding females are the ones that are getting angry lately, the male is getting calmer now that he's looking spawned out daily. *Add joke here*. He gets light spots along his spinal line when he's had a busy morning.





It's all fun and games until mom sees you taking pictures.

 

[John58Ford]

There are fry living in a dozen+ different shells throughout the tank now. I think the oldest group is into the juvenile stage, and there's a fresh batch of fry I managed to get some shots of today too.

 

[John58Ford]

This tank has been very interesting to watch, not what I had expected, but very educational. I have learned allot about water/nutrient/mineral management in a larger understocked planted Tanganyika tank. We have been amazed at the inkfin calvus as he spins in a circle with his scales protruding to ward off attacks from the territorial females. I have learned some of the the difference in a friendly balanced food focused Tanganyika colony (N. multi) and a violent protein focused colony (L. oce).

Some graphic fish on fish and invert violence is described in the below summary, if you don't want read you can look away. If you're a fan of shark week, read on.

This tank isn't what I would call an abject failure but it got close in mid June(~12-15th). We had 5 adult occy, and the calvus cohabitating with a multitude of snails and about 2 dozen 1/8"-1/4" juvenile. Overnight and through one workday; 2 oce including the large alpha male were ripped to pieces, a golfball sized snail and a couple quarter size were pulled apart (operculums ripped off but still alive) and had to be let go. All the juveniles vanished, likely hunted by the females as I had seen happening but I had hoped a couple hid in the shells in the un-guarded areas of the tank. Within 3-4 days everything calmed down, the violence stopped and I thought we only had 3 females left. All 3 are about the same size and had similar behaviors when seen near the shells.

Presently upon returning from a road trip we have observed 3-5 day old fry in 2 of the homesteads. I'm not sure how, possibly one of the suspect females is a very small male, maybe there's some sperm storage capacity in the shells? I really haven't seen any breeding behaviors with these remaining fish as we saw when the alpha would enter the shells with the females originally. I know live-bearers(not these fish) have the ability to store and release genetic packets months to years after contact but with shell dwellers being egg laying fish I don't believe the female could do that. Unless the shells have a sperm bank inside I must be mis-identifying one fish. Ideas on this?

Anyhow, I haven't taken a full tank shot but here's a fresh fry pic, no adjustment for focus, the debris is just evidence of feeding time. That's when I noticed the new arrivals.