Angjo72
New Member
Heya,
My intentions were not to breed, I got the leleupi as replacement for some fish that died in transit, I just got lucky that my tank conditions were healthy enough for them to breed.
If you want to breed the occies, I would suggest setting up a 10 gal tank for them, and purchasing 1 male and a few females, occies, from what I understand are harem shellies, the male likes to have more than a few females! he will in fact fill shells that are empty in anticipation that more females will come along so he can dig the shells out(kinda like saving places for more females). I have also read that the male will set up a circle of shells around his for his females! IF they breed, be prepared for them to be aggressive (hence me saying to set up a 10 gal just for them) Im not sure if the females will be aggressive towards each other, but again, be prepared to have to move some!
The 20 gal would be perfect to breed a pair of leleupi, in my experience though more than 1 female and 1 male will cause problems once the young are born! My female leleupi was so aggressive, she fought off 10- 2 inch syno's for over a week before I saw lil leleupis swimming around!
Now, if you were willing to go up to a 29 or 55 gal, you could keep these both together on seperate ends of the tank! (but again, be prepared to remove some fish, because the occies will become very aggressive) My leleupis, even after having fry, did not even pay attention to the brevis and the multis LOL I even have had some of my fry get loose and end up on the opposite end of the tank, and none of the shellies ate them!
What shells do you have? The muffin shells that are about 4 inches? (polished shells usually do not have polish on them, they are just buffed out and should be ok, unless they leach into the tank) Those are good for the bigger shellies, my multis (which are about the same size as the occies) prefer the turbo shells and the whales eyes (2 to 3 inches) My female leleupi, given the option of all my shells (2 to 4 inches) actually chose a 2 1/2 inch turbo shell to lay her eggs!! The big muffin shells will work though!
If you are wanting to breed them, I wouldnt suggest you get just one of each type! You could always start out with a shellie tank and then move up to a leleupi tank! Dont be in too much of hurry, it takes time!
Ang
My intentions were not to breed, I got the leleupi as replacement for some fish that died in transit, I just got lucky that my tank conditions were healthy enough for them to breed.
If you want to breed the occies, I would suggest setting up a 10 gal tank for them, and purchasing 1 male and a few females, occies, from what I understand are harem shellies, the male likes to have more than a few females! he will in fact fill shells that are empty in anticipation that more females will come along so he can dig the shells out(kinda like saving places for more females). I have also read that the male will set up a circle of shells around his for his females! IF they breed, be prepared for them to be aggressive (hence me saying to set up a 10 gal just for them) Im not sure if the females will be aggressive towards each other, but again, be prepared to have to move some!
The 20 gal would be perfect to breed a pair of leleupi, in my experience though more than 1 female and 1 male will cause problems once the young are born! My female leleupi was so aggressive, she fought off 10- 2 inch syno's for over a week before I saw lil leleupis swimming around!
Now, if you were willing to go up to a 29 or 55 gal, you could keep these both together on seperate ends of the tank! (but again, be prepared to remove some fish, because the occies will become very aggressive) My leleupis, even after having fry, did not even pay attention to the brevis and the multis LOL I even have had some of my fry get loose and end up on the opposite end of the tank, and none of the shellies ate them!
What shells do you have? The muffin shells that are about 4 inches? (polished shells usually do not have polish on them, they are just buffed out and should be ok, unless they leach into the tank) Those are good for the bigger shellies, my multis (which are about the same size as the occies) prefer the turbo shells and the whales eyes (2 to 3 inches) My female leleupi, given the option of all my shells (2 to 4 inches) actually chose a 2 1/2 inch turbo shell to lay her eggs!! The big muffin shells will work though!
If you are wanting to breed them, I wouldnt suggest you get just one of each type! You could always start out with a shellie tank and then move up to a leleupi tank! Dont be in too much of hurry, it takes time!
Ang
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