Lake Tanganyika Species • My Gold Occies Showing Off

[judgejules1]

Just wanted to share.
It's like a tale in 3 shots...

[Deeda]

Nice shots, they are looking great!

[sir_keith]

Cute little guys. What are the plants?

[judgejules1]

Staurogyne repens

I have a lot of it down in the sump, and figured I'd try to see if I can get any to take in the foreground and root under the rock. Not likely, but wanted to try.

On another note, anyone ever heard of shellies, gold occies specifically, laying their eggs outside a shell? There are 7 of them in this tank. About 40 shells. Plenty to go around and each has one. But I noticed last night when doing some cleaning that when I cleaned near this one rock a few of the shellies came rushing over to defend it. I didn't think anything of it. Then this morning I looked more closely at that area and notice that there is a little shelf that protrudes and a dig out, very small, but under that protrusion there is an egg "sack." I can see at least 20-30 eggs, small black spots in the middle of them (assuming eyes). I saw this via a small magnifying glass with led light. And while I was looking, sure enough one of the shellies came over from the shell. Not right in front of it but close enough. I'll try to see if I can take some pictures today. But I wondering if they did this to protect, as there are 3 julie malieri's in the tank. 2 have paired and another lone one is closer to where this rock is.

Anyway, just curious. Will post some pics later if I can get a good one through the magnifying glass

[judgejules1]

Ok, these are the pictures of the eggs I mentioned above.
Took close up shots as best I could, and then wide shot so you can see the location they're in.

Any thoughts on whether these belong to my gold occies?

[judgejules1]

Another update.
Sure enough, went to check on them again and momma is now guarding the area a little more vigilantly.
And the eggs stretch pretty fair back. Multiple clusters. That little crevice stretches fairly deep into that rock.
Wonder if they choose this spot b/c of the julies in the area? Anyway, not much is going to get to them down there, so might have some fry in the next few days which is a first for this newish tank.

[Deeda]

Congrats on the new spawn! Maybe this time they preferred under a rock instead of a shell?

[judgejules1]

Ok, so I was completely wrong in expecting that those were shellie eggs.
They were snail eggs. I think the shellie might have been eating them, which is why she kept going over there

However, a few weeks later and now I DO have my first batch of shellie fry.
They're just starting to come out of the shell, but there's at least 3 so far.