Lamprologus ocellatus

[Smilie]

I've found the best way to sex occies is the colour of fin edges....but that has not been endorsed by everyone
and I must say I have a young "blue" occy that has some white on his dorsal....not as much as females but white none the less. I've also tried to use the long face short face idea for sexing L. speciosus.....unsuccessfully so far.

It is easy to tell the sexes apart once you have a pair.....getting there is the hard part!
You really need to post photo's when they have there fins spread ie

Almost impossible to sex them with their fins closed

Nice "Gold occies"....I'm jealous....Hope you have a pair!

I'd put a male and the female? together by themselves and see what happens....take away the distractions.

[eklikewhoa]

is that a proven pair in your picture?

im guessing female on the right and male on the left? you're jealous of my gold occies and those are a pair im jealous you have a female.

[Smilie]

They are a proven pair of "Blue" occies(see gallery for photo of female with fry)

You've sexed them correctly....

Your female? looks like she has been knocked around a bit....be careful she doesn't develop fungus on her wounds

[eklikewhoa]

yeah i just got that one from a lfs that had a huge ocellatus in the same tank that was beating on it. it has now settled in and moved into a shell.

i have a harem coming tomorrow that has already been established so i will try my luck with them.

[Phonemonkey]

New here, so first of all, greetings.

I'm setting up a 12g eclipse tank at work for some golds... the fish will be coming (free   ) from a generous friend next week. Sadly, the first shipment didn't make it...

Heres some pics of the tank right now... I added a few ghost shrimp out of sheer boredom... any suggestions on modifications to the arrangement would be welcomed as I'm completely new to the hobby...





Random shrimp pic... 

[Miles44]

Welcome to the site.  Your tank looks great.  How many are you expecting?   

[Phonemonkey]

Thanks, most likely 4-5 juvies.

[orbitup]

I just bought 3 little ones. They set up shop right away. One of them even bit me when I when to move some shells around! I love them already.

[Sean]

i have  5 gold occies in my tank and i love how they bite you even there in thier shells
they already dug in places and chosen there shells
how do you sex these guys??

[Smilie]

If you have a look back through this thread you will see several opinions of how to sex occies

or alternatively take some photo's of them with their fins spread....post them here and wait for opinions!

[Sean]

thanks, but my camera is like crap
but i think i have like 3females
and 2 males they dug places
and stuff. one of the punks are guarding the shell
he/she wont let anyone in but 1 caudo near him/her
and how does courtshiping start?

[eklikewhoa]

after trying my luck with occies i think the best way is to buy a bunch and the ones that have babies are female, the ones that die are sub-dominant/unwanted male/females

[kpm2k]

Got myself a couple of Occy's yesterday, thought I'd check with the experts on sexing.  The pictures arent that great but hopefully good enough.  I'll take some more if necessary

Male I'm pretty sure of.. (been digging around shells, buried a couple, etc)


The other one that has been in the corner since yesterday and doesnt seem to do much digging.  (one on the left)  Usually in the corner behind the filter but the "male" is there at the moment


Rough Picture, the "other one" on top

[idesign245]

My tiny gold occie I picked up last night, he'll be having free reign over the 10 gallon bachelor pad for now!

[Sean]

will you get more??