Ocellatus Cichlid

The lamprologus ocellatus cichlid is one of the most desired and hard-to-find shell dwellers among enthusiasts. These are tough to find and harder to breed, so they are a bit more expensive than the brevis or hecqui shell dweller cichlids. Like the other shell dwellers, ocellatus love to share their shell with females but will fight with other males to keep their shell to themselves. Shell dwellers are hardy and great additions to community tanks and peaceful cichlid tanks. These small fish love their shells, so try to keep a few in the aquarium that are lightweight and not too large for them to manipulate but large enough for them to get into.

Quick Facts

Care Guide

Tank setup: Use a fine sand bottom they can dig in and provide more empty snail shells (escargot shells work well) than there are fish. Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika cichlids need hard, alkaline water; crushed coral or aragonite sand helps hold the pH up.

Feeding: Feed crushed flake or micro pellets once or twice a day, only as much as they eat in a couple of minutes. They also enjoy frozen brine shrimp.

Tankmates: Keep shell dwellers in a species tank or with small, peaceful Tanganyikans like cyprichromis or julidochromis. Larger cichlids will bully or eat them.

Good to know: Ocellatus are bold little shell dwellers that will defend their shell against much bigger fish. One male with several females works well.