Newbie: small African tank

"Toby Marsden" wrote in message
...

I've fallen for the idea of keeping L. ocellatus. Presumably it's not
easy/possible to sex juveniles at the LFS to obtain a pair - so what's
the best way forward? Put a few in, and expect to have to remove some
if the male/female balance is wrong?? That doesn't seem ideal, but is
there an alternative?

I was looking at Cyprichromis leptosoma as pelagic tankmates - three
to five of these maybe. Or are there reasonable alternatives with L.
ocellatus in a 36"/23 gal?

Thanks again everyone!

Toby

If you're going for the ocellatus, make sure you get the "gold" geographic
variant as opposed to the ever present "blue" strain continuously sold as
"gold". I like 55 gallon tanks or larger for Cyprichromis species. They can
be delicate and stress fairly easily. Also, in the Lake, they were always in
huge schools by the hundreds, keeping just a few in a small tank just seems
wrong to me. For the L. ocellatus, you'll want to get a few juveniles and
allow them to pair off.
Tim