I put the six fish in a 20 long to grow. The tank was set up with an under gravel filter, a substrate of small dolomite gravel, red river flint (for color) and some crushed oyster shell. This substrate and my "liquid rock" well water will give these Julies the hard alkaline water they need. The tank was full of caves, top to bottom, and end to end, in the form of six inch pieces of PVC pipe, clay flower pots and slate pieces. Temperature was maintained at 78 degrees F. The tank received 12 to 16 hours of fluorescent light a day, resulting in nice algae growth. Only the front glass was cleaned. After a few months, I noticed there were two larger and four smaller fish and a couple of the smaller ones were hanging in the top corners of the tank due to harassment.

I decided to divide the colony, I removed one larger and two smaller fish to a 55 gallon tank. I left the other three in the 20 long and they co-existed quite well. In fact, there was a spawn! (A spawn which resulted in one survivor.) The first I knew of it was when I noticed the lone quarter inch fry. After several months without additional spawns, I sold these four fish at the spring auction.

The three fish in the 55 gallon by themselves turned out to be one fish too many. In three days one of the smaller fish was killed, leaving just the pair. I couldn't believe it. All that room and yet one pair of dwarf Julies could not tolerate an extra fish. In an effort to see what was happening, I rearranged the tank. Only three caves were used, all small upside down flower pots with an opening cut out of the rim. (Note: You can get a carbide hack-saw blade that cuts pots easily and you don't bust up so many flower pots. Steve Hedges says that it also helps if you soak the pots in warm water prior to cutting.) I then gave the pair some options. Only the right half of the tank was lit with a short fluorescent fixture. The cave in the lit side was positioned with the "door" facing front. The caves in the center and the unlit side were placed with the door facing the rear. The pair started spawning, and did it every time in the well lit side of the tank in the pot with the visible "door". I believe it was because that side had such a heavy algae growth. I could look in the pot with a flashlight and see wigglers. The fish were maintained on a diet of flake food, frozen brine and live Daphnia Magna. According to several reference books, Julies commonly have two modes of spawning. Either a large spawn every few weeks or a small spawn every 8 to 10 days. My pair is sort of in between. They spawn just a few eggs about every 3 weeks. I don't disturb the pot to count eggs, but the survivors usually number less than six fish. The female is about 3 inches long and the male 2 1/2 inches. One day I noticed they had spawned for the third time. I saw three tiny fry around the spawning pot. Then I noticed a white speck in the algae mat on the right wall of the aquarium. The white speck moved! The first albino fry was here! Currently there are about a dozen fry in the tank, but just the one albino. The larger fry are over an inch long and are being harassed by Mom and Dad. I guess it's time to catch some fry. I will bring six to the January meeting for BAP auction, so get some tank space ready if you are interested. You certainly don't need a 55 gallon tank. A ten gallon should do nicely, or even a community tank of suitable Africans. No - I'm not going to bring the albino!

J. ornatus is one of the dwarf Julies found at numerous locations in the rocky areas of Lake Tanganyika at shallow to intermediate depths. You will find interesting photos and text in the following references:

1. Brichard, Pierre (1978) Fishes of Lake Tanganyika TFH Publications, Inc. Neptune City, New Jersey. (TFH H-972)

2. Konings, Ad (1993) The Cichlids Yearbook Vol. 3 Cichlid Press, Through Old World Exotic Fish, Miami, Florida

3. Konings, Ad (1993) Enjoying Cichlids, Cichlid Press Riehl, R. & Baensch, H.A. (1991)

4. Baensch Aquarium Atlas, Microcosm

P.S. Since this article was originally written, I saved the albinos from several spawns and now have a strain that is throwing off all albino fry.