Michael

Sorry, but I must boast! My Lamprologus ocellatus spawned and now have free-swimming fry out of their mother's shell.

Several months ago I set up a 20 gallon Walstad tank just for these fish. Really, I just hoped I would be able to observe their fascinating behavior and did not expect to spawn them successfully. If you aren't familiar with these great little cichlids here is a good article about them: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_ocellatus.php The usual Rift Lake tank is a sterile moonscape. Here in Texas the fashion is stark white limestone with lots of holes in it and black gravel. If a little algae appears on the stone to soften it, most people take it out and pressure wash it. That's fine if you like it, but I was determined to have an attractive planted tank AND Tanganyikan cichlids, if only small ones.

So how do you combine a soil substrate with fish that love to dig? The front 2/3 of the tank is 2" of Safe-T-Sorb (STS), with no soil underneath. This is where most of the shells are, and the only planting is Hemianthus glomeratus. Surprisingly, it grew very fast and covered large areas of substrate.

The back 1/3 of the tank has 1" of mineralized topsoil and 1" of STS. This part is heavily planted with Eleocharis vivipara and Cryptocoryne wentii 'Red". The soilless front of the tank is divided from the soil section in the back with an irregular line of large stream pebbles, up to softball size. These are closely spaced to discourage the fish from digging in this area. Planted in the small gaps between these stones are two clumps of Ludwigia repens--all new Walstad tanks need fast growing plants to soak up the excess nutrients.

I've had some minor algae problems; one bout of mild green water and a little hair algae. Reducing light, adding some floaters, and a few doses of Excel have the algae under control.

I will try to get some decent photos up soon. The plants are not very mature yet, and I was going to wait a while before starting this thread. But the baby fish made me do it now.

mudboots

Congrats on the successful spawning Michael! Can't wait to see some pics...

Tex Gal

I love these little guys! They are so cute hanging around their shells! How neat for them to breed for you! Are they parents caring for them like crib parents do?

It doesn't surprise me Michael. Your tanks are beautiful!

Michael

Thanks!

In this species, the male's territory overlaps the territories of several females. When a female is ready to spawn, she invites the resident male over to her shell, then throws him out when the deed is done. The female then does all the brood care until the fry are independent and go off to find their own territories. So unlike kirbs, the male does not care for the young.

One nice thing is that adults generally will not canabalize the fry, even if they are not the parents.

Michael

Here is a quick photo. You can see the proud (and fierce!) mother in the lower left.

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chrislewistx

Congratulations on the fry. I have never kept shell dwellers, but did have a friend who kept them in the past. They were more fun to watch then a circus clowns.

The tall, grass like plant at the very back is the Eleocharis viviparayou mentioned in the earlier post,right? Do you know if this plant is indigenous to Texas? Also, did you use a background sheet on this tank? In regards to the HG, did you purposely plant it heavy on the right side, or did it just grow that way. One last question, since the HG is planted in the STS did you add any substrate tabs up front?

I think its a very nice looking tank. Even if you think the plants need to grow in more.

Michael

Thanks, Chris!

I think E. vivipara is native to the SE US, but I'm not sure if it comes as far west as Texas. It is not listed in Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas.

The background you see is actually just the wall behind the tank; it gets the shaded effect from the tank lighting.

The H. glomeratus came out of two different grow-tanks, one batch on the left and one on the right. It was not planted more heavily on the right, but just grew that way. The right gets more a little more light (not shaded by Ludwigia), but that doesn't seem like enough to account for the difference. I didn't use any substrate fertilization in the front at all--it really surprised me that the H.g. grew so fast and stayed so horizontal.

The C. wendtii in the back is very slow, slower than normal it seems. When it gets about 6-8" tall I will be much happier with the tank. I'll also try to get some more photos up this weekend.

chrislewistx

I have heard of Viviapara in reference to Amano using it in several of his scapes. During a Podcast I was listening to the speakers mentioned they didn't like the way it grew since it branched and tended to tangle. However, I think I like the look of it.

It is funny how plants, no mater what we try to do to them, continue to grow how they want to, when they want to, like with your HG. It's always interesting to see what they do.