Gold Ocellatus Shell Dweller

Overview

The gold ocellatus shell dweller lives on the bottom of the tank and makes an empty snail shell its home. It is mostly peaceful away from its shell and easy to keep.   The gold ocellatus shell dweller treats one empty snail shell as its whole world. It digs out sand to bury the shell at the angle it wants, and backs in tail first when anything bigger comes near. A female can spend most of her life within a few centimeters of her shell, raising batch after batch of fry inside it.

Caring for the gold ocellatus shell dweller

Give gold ocellatus shell dwellers at least 11 gal (40 L). Lay a sand bed at least 5 cm deep so they can dig. Add more empty snail shells than fish, since each one needs a home base to claim. Spread the shells out so every fish has space.

Keep the water hard and alkaline, at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) and a pH of 7.5 to 9.0. Feed small sinking foods and crushed pellets, plus frozen cyclops, brine shrimp or daphnia.

Keep one male with two or three females. They are mostly peaceful, but each fish turns fiercely territorial in the small zone right around its own shell. Outside that patch they leave the open water alone, so they pair well with mid-water Tanganyikans. Keep the upper water open for those fish, since the shell dwellers stay down low.

Males are larger, and females stay around half their size. They are easy cave spawners that breed readily inside the shells. The female tends the eggs and fry in her shell.

Good to know

The gold ocellatus shell dweller is a dwarf cichlid in the family Cichlidae. Most fish in the trade are tank bred, and they can live several years in good water.

In the wild

Gold ocellatus are endemic to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. They live over open sandy stretches scattered with empty snail shells. The lake's water is hard and alkaline.