Bloodfins nipping Otos

[Paladinpress]

I just purchased two Otos for my 29 community planted tank. The other residents are a school of 14 BFTs. The Otos immediately started going to work on some brown algae building up on the leaves. Every now and then, a bloodfin will slowly coast by then nip at the Oto's tail or side.

Is this something to be concerned about, or will a little time and adjustment to a pecking order settle this?

[coach_z]

considering ottos fragility i would say that it is best to stop the nipping. if it is a territory thing i would remove the bft's (if possible) for a few hours, and then re-arrange your tank and let the ottos get well established and then re-introduce your bfts to the tank

my bet is that the bfts will stress the ottos until they die. esp because they are a very fragile species

[Paladinpress]

Yeah, I am worried knowing how fragile they are. The bloodfins are more aggressive than I thought a school of small tetras would be. If they keep it up and harm the Otos, they will get a trip back to the LFS to be replaced with more peaceful tankmates. If I have to yank the BFTs out, they are going back for store credit on some Harlequins or Cardinals.

[Kashta]

I don't know this species well, but a lot of tetras are like that. I'm sure you will have to choose between them or the otos. Even if you don't notice a lot of fin nipping towards the otos, you already know they've been picked on. And so do they. It's not going to work for them trying to keep hidden and protected. They need to venture out into open places in order to eat enough to survive. Otos are notorious for starving to death too because they need a lot of algae.

[Paladinpress]

Well, the tank needed a little rearanging anyway and the driftwood needed to be permanently tied down. So while I had the driftwood out and the tank apart, I netted and bagged up the BFTs for a trip back to the LFS. While there, I decided to go with 12 Neons as replacement bioload for the bloods. So I get home with my 12 neons, which turns out to be 16 (the lady with the net cuts a wide swath) and they seem to be doing fine with the Otos.

I have not seen any evidence of nipping from the neons, and they are about 1/3 the size of the BFT, I really had not noticed how large the BFT was, they were larger than the poor little Otos. The neons are about 1/2 the size of the Oto. Should I still keep an eye out for nipping, or are neons more peaceful? Also, for a 29 tank and with plans to add a few more fish, either corys, more otos or maybe a bolivian ram, should I cull the neons down to 12? I keep seeing where rams can snack on neons, so maybe not a ram for now.