# Ocellatus tank mates in a 20g long?



## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

I've read one other thread on this subject, and another similar thread on Multis. Had my own questions.

First - I realize there are some skeptical opinions regarding a tank of this size and Occies. However, it's what I have to work with here at work, and enough people seem to have positive experiences with Occies in a 20g long for me to give them a try. I purchased six on Saturday and will have them here tomorrow.

Another thread suggested maybe a trio of Caudopunks would be good with Multis... Do the Occies behave similar to Multis with respect to tank mates?

That thread also suggested maybe a SINGLE Calvus and/or a Juli? Same question would apply.

I'm just looking for something to make the tank a little more three dimensional.

As always - thanks for your input


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## wallyb0rd000 (Apr 18, 2012)

I just did a similar set up. I got 6 gold occies about a half inch long in a 29 gal.(they are awesome by the way) I am thinking of getting some top swimmers to act as dithers and I was told cyprochromis leptosoma is a good option. I have a breeder with 7 of them about and inch long. i was about to post this question but if you don't mind i will piggy back on yours. check out the fish if you want...my question being "is 7 too many many for my tank?" hope I could help you and maybe i will get some answers too


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## Darkskies (Mar 17, 2012)

I think that most setups that work with multies also work well with ocellatus. The ocellatus are more pugnacious and can definitely hold their own with fish much larger than them. Unlike multies, you'll have to remove any extra males since they will not be tolerated in a 20 g long so your six original occies will probably become 5 at the most(1 male, 4 females+ lots of fry eventually). Cyprichromis leptosoma need a minimum of 3-4 feet of tank space.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

wallyb0rd000 said:


> I just did a similar set up. I got 6 gold occies about a half inch long in a 29 gal.(they are awesome by the way) I am thinking of getting some top swimmers to act as dithers and I was told cyprochromis leptosoma is a good option. I have a breeder with 7 of them about and inch long. i was about to post this question but if you don't mind i will piggy back on yours. check out the fish if you want...my question being "is 7 too many many for my tank?" hope I could help you and maybe i will get some answers too


Works for me :thumb:


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

I'd leave them as a single species in a tank that size.
See this thread. viewtopic.php?f=10&t=246643&p=1750017#p1750017


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

I'd leave them as a single species, and shoout for 1m, 2-3 females. If I HAD to have something else..a single Calvus/Comp, or single small julie. But, they will interfere with fry and breeding!


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Thanks for the input everyone.

I have my Occies here by my desk at work in a 20g long with sand and some shells. They've been here barely two hours and are already claiming territory and burying shells! They are hillarious to watch - I love them . So much more active here than at home - assumably because they have sand as opposed to small gravel.

I threw my nigripinnis in with them because he needed a home and likes roughly the same type of water. He's going to stay for now and we'll play it by ear - I know he's a schooler and needs more swimming room but he's thankful to be out of the mixed mbuna tank and then the 5g temporary tank he was in. They don't seem to even notice him right now, and he enjoys picking stuff out of the cloud of sand they are throwing on their shells.

So far I'm very happy with the Occies, and they are a hit with others here at work. I don't think I'll have any problem rehoming unwanted males and/or juvies.


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## SandBagger (Nov 17, 2010)

I have a 20g l blue occie tank. It's about a year and a half old. I started with 8 young little guys. Once a pair formed, the others became in trouble FAST. The male, who is quite large, seems to be less dominant than the female....she is VERY aggressive. I too found them very interesting at first. Lots of interaction between them. Once a pair formed and dominance was established though, most of the interaction ceased as the only 2 in the tank is the pair. The upside is they breed like rabbits! That can be interesting for a while. At this point though, I'm kind of bored with them. I should have taken Provs advice....darn it, he was right again!!! I think I'm going to throw them in a small corner territory I will design for them in a large 180g or 220 and see how they play with species much larger than themselves.

I certainly wasn't very direct, but I will be now. Keep a close eye on that paracyp.....I think his days are numbered in there. Either that or I ended up with a pair of very, over aggressive occies.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

SandBagger said:


> I certainly wasn't very direct, but I will be now. Keep a close eye on that paracyp.....I think his days are numbered in there. Either that or I ended up with a pair of very, over aggressive occies.


I will do that. Thanks for the heads up!


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Thought I would update this thread. It's hard to believe this started ten days ago - seems longer than that.

I wound up with six Occies between 1 and 1.25" long, a Paracyps that is over 2" and a single White Calvus that's about 2". They're a good mix for now. It took the Calvus a while to come out from under the rock but now he's venturing out and eating. The Occies finally figured out they need to come off the bottom in order to get any food as the NigripiGGis eats EVERYTHING on the way down lol.

I enjoy the interactions the Occies have with the Calvus and the Paracyps. The latter try to intimidate the Occies on occasion, and the Occies just look at them, not intimidated at all. Occasionally one of them gets chased, but only runs as far as the chase continues, and immediately resumes the previous position, as if to say 'yeah, whatever.'

Couple of quesions -

How old/long do the Occies need to be in order to start spawning?

Also, is the color of the tip of the dorsal/anal fins a good way to sex them? Three of mine have 'relatively' white tips, while the other three are more gold colored. Is this indicative of female/male?


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## wallyb0rd000 (Apr 18, 2012)

Love your setup. I wound up with 6 occies as well but went with a few leptosoma. sounds like we have a very similar tank. I have been told that the calvus will end up eating all the fry that's why I avoided that at least until I get the first spawn. I was wondering how long that would take as well. Is it easy to see the difference between the gold and white fins or is it very subtle? Mine are only about 3/4" right now and it is very hard to see any differences. Good luck with yours!


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

wallyb0rd000 said:


> ... Is it easy to see the difference between the gold and white fins or is it very subtle?


It's subtle, unless you're looking for it, then it can be seen.

And yeah... if the Calvus eats ALL the fry then he will be moving... somewhere else. As someone else noted today, "it seems every day there is another need/want/reason to have another tank" lol.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

So just after posting this, I saw some suspicious behavior in the tank!

One of the littler ones, assumably female from the very light colored fin tips, was displaying to a male (again, assuming)... kind of curling her tail and 'inviting' him over to her shell, much like Marc described in his article about them. She was not dark on top though, but her pectoral fins were almost black, which I haven't seen before, and which she looses as soon as she stops displaying. She has repeated this several times in the past hour.

The male doesn't really know what to do, but he's definitely interested, as is another female that has a shell close by.

Maybe things are a startin'!


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Sure sounds like it. I never noticed any displaying whatsoever from my ocellatus when I had them. 
On a few occasions, I saw these very tiny, dark specs moving around the entrance to one of the females' shells.
As a reference, the sand grains in these pics are sugar grain or smaller.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Wow!  Very cool pictures. Man those are sure tiny.

I found another thread talking more about sexing them. I'll post it here for reference.

http://cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=218837


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Also found this informative article with pictures. I didn't see any rules about posting links to other sites so if that's a no-no I apologize.

http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=230


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

My Occies in this tank spawned! I just found two fry swimming around the mouth of a shell! I'm really excited :dancing: .

This tank has forced me to be patient, which is not a natural behavior :lol:

I believe in the end I have three males and two females. This is based on size and behavior. Three of them have become noticeably larger than the other two, and two of the larger ones have been banished from the shell bed. One of the smaller ones is the mother as she is guarding the shell where the fry are. The other small one is also guarding a shell so I'm curious if she too has fry inside.

I don't think the Calvus knows what's up yet... he's kinda slow lol... but the rubber lip pleco sure is being nosy. The female Occie runs him off, however he turns around and chases her lol. In the end she just dives in her shell so he can't get in.

Ah man this is cool! Well worth the wait


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## Storiwyr (Apr 24, 2012)

YAY! Baby Occies! Pics or it didn't happen!


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Oh Gosh - pics would be tough! They are soooo small, and I have speckled sand. I'll try to remember my camera tomorrow so I can prove it really happened! :roll:


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Small indeed. I managed a few pics with a macro lens.

30" 20g long.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Congrats, Dawg.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Awesome!


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

Thanks! Today I come in to check on the fry... I find one of the two I had seen previously, then notice something else... More fry! About *HALF* the size of the original two. I'm guessing I've had the two 'larger' ones for maybe a month or so, based on how much larger they are than the new ones. The smaller ones, there's three of them, are like long grains of sand lol. I also noticed the second female has a couple of small ones as well. WooHoo!

I think it's time to remove the other two males, as well as the Rubber Lip. He's very aggressive for a Pleco. Seems intent on cleaning the inside of the females shells.

The Calvus...? He still doesn't know what's up... Not the quickest of fish in the tank. He's perfectly happy sitting/digging under the rocks at his end of the tank. Probably be even happier without the two outcast male Occies bugging him... making him move very hour or two lol.


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

I've removed the other two males, and the Rubber Lip - he was very aggressive trying to get into the females shells. I first thought he was trying to clean them, but my GF read somewhere the pleco's will eat very small fry, and I haven't been able to find those two original 'larger' fry that I first saw. There's a bunch of smaller-ish ones now though.

I've also noticed the fry don't tend to stick near their home shell? Is this normal? The females seem to guard an area, consisting of a few shells, and they'll defend this area - but if the fry wander off then they're on their own. I have seen fry in many different areas of the tank, even in the males area. They seem to be mighty quick. I was just surprised that they wandered off so young...

Anyway, what can I do for algae in this tank? I can get a scrubber for the glass, but what about the lace rock - can't exactly scrub it, and it's turning a nice shade of very dark brown and green. Kind of pretty right now but I know what's to come. Would a BN pleco be as aggressive and/or eat the fry?


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## Dawg2012 (May 10, 2012)

So I have to now say I'm pretty disappointed with my Occies. A week ago I counted 10 fry out swimming about - mostly around the male's shell. One had gotten big enough to actually see his color, and he looked more like a fish than a fry.

The last few days, nothing. I'm not sure what happened but they're all gone. One of the females is pretty aggressive, but the male usually keeps her in check. Maybe he ate them, I don't know. There's a Calvus in the tank but... I don't think he ate them. He never ventures out from his rocks, and quite honestly I'm thinking he may have spent a little too much time out of the water at some point :lol: .

But between that and the fact that all they seem to do is sit on their shells and do a little landscaping now and again, I'm bored and frustrated with them. I have multies at home and they're much more active and fun to watch. I have three males and three females - so I'll bring in a pair and give them a try. I'll take these three Occies home and put them in the 75g Tang tank because they are attractive.


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