Snail cichlid DNZ - Lamprologus ocellatus

Here you can buy German offspring of the interesting snail cichlid  Lamprologus ocellatus from the southern part of Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Formerly it was called Julidochromis ocellatus or Neolamprologus ocellatus and is also known as Tanganyika Snailfish. This nice little cichlid belongs to the large family of cichlids from East Africa.

The snail cichlid from Lake Tanganyika is visually a pretty little fish, but color-wise it is rather subdued - bright with an implied spotted pattern and blue metallic shiny scales. What makes these little cichlids so interesting is their super cool behavior: They live and breed in snail shells that are no longer inhabited!

In the lake itself, snail cichlids live in shells of the Tanganyika snail Neothauma tanganyicense, but they are not picky in the aquarium and will accept other snail shells that have a similar shell shape. Often you hear the recommendation to take vine snail shells, but these disintegrate quite quickly under water. We offer here in the store a good selection of more suitable shells of water snails for snail cichlids.

The males of Lamprologus ocellatus are much larger than the females. The females additionally show a white stripe in their dorsal fin. The Snail Cichlid does not grow very large for a cichlid with only 6 cm and can therefore be kept in pairs or in a small harem of 1 male with several females already in an aquarium from 80 cm edge length and 112 liters volume. For a pair also a very well structured 54 liter aquarium is sufficient.

Snail cichlids need medium hard to hard water. They need a water temperature of 24-27 °C, a pH of 7,5-9 and a total hardness of 10-12 °dGH.

In the wild, carnivorous snail cichlids like to eat worms and small crustaceans, in the aquarium they will eat live and frozen food accordingly and can also be accustomed to dry food. NatureHolic Cichfeed is a perfectly suitable food for these small carnivores.

Snail cichlids always need more snail shells of different sizes in the aquarium than there are fish. The tank does not necessarily need to be planted, a stone layout - as usual for Tanganyika aquariums - is sufficient and corresponds to the natural habitat of the small East African cichlids. The substrate should be sand. The snail cichlid likes to bury unused snail shells.

Lamprologus ocellatus is a rather bottom-oriented aquarium fish. A socialization with other bottom dwellers should be avoided. There are no free swimming Tanganyika cichlids that would fit into the recommended aquarium size; however, the Snail Cichlid Lamprologus ocellatus can of course be easily socialized in larger aquariums of 300 liters or more with Lake Tanganyika cichlids that inhabit the upper water layers.  

Breeding of the pretty snail cichlids is not difficult. They lay their spawn in the snail shells, where the female performs brood care. During this time, the clutch including the breeding territory is defended with vehemence by the male. The young come to the entrance of the snail shell for the first time at about 10 days of age and begin to feed. After about 25 days they leave the shell completely. The young fish can bury themselves in the sand in case of danger, but they also like to hide in smaller snail shells. The small Lamprologus ocellatus are raised with Artemia nauplii.