Successful Otocinlus

[Wishful]

Several weeks ago I finished up my research and decided to add some otocinclus to my 20gal tank. Given that I haven't kept a tank in decades or ever even seen these critters before, I was pretty worried about the high rate of die-off with new otocinclus. When a local store finally (after 3 weeks of waiting) finally had them in stock, I decided to try and do everything I could to keep from losing any.

Since I'd been waiting to get these critters, I hadn't added any fish recently to the tank (only a month old at this point) and the chemical balances were all excellent. Since we have a chiller/heater, I called the store ahead of time and asked what temp they kept their tanks at so I could match my tank to that temp. I also asked for a water sample when I purchased the otocinclus, and while they were floating in their bag, I checked it against our tank and made a few small adjustments to bring them as close as possible.

I pre-treated the tank with stress-coat, knew I had a bumper crop of algae ready for them, chose only those otos that had full looking bellies ( not that the salesperson was all that happy at catching nine fish to get me six acceptable ones!), kept the lights off the tank while they acclimated, slowly added water from my tank to their bag over six hours, left the lights off until the next morning and skipped the evening feed to keep the tank quiet and undisturbed.

The result? Six out of six happy otos busy being busy all over my tank.
Four days, no deaths, everyone's got a full tummy and is very active.

Though my idiot-child chinese algae eater (blame the husband, no me!)
is sulking. Everytime he goes to hoover a surface and finds an oto in his way, he zips off and hides in the plants for the next twenty minutes or so.

[Lorazoo]

awesome. are you feeding them anything or are they just eating algae? I want to get some for my new 125, but I dont have much algae. i know they dont eat prepared foods, but i have read you could feed them veggies like zucchini.

[Wishful]

So far I haven't tried feeding them anything specifically. I have a heavily planted tank with quite a few mid-sized rocks and a mixed gravel substrate. I only clean the front and sides leaving the algae on the backpane untouched. While the otos clearly prefer the younger lighter growths of algae, I've noticed they'll nibble on the older tougher stuff for a while before heading away to look for yummier choices.

For every source I've found saying otos won't accept prepared foods, I've found a source saying they've seen their otos accept algae wafers. If the tank starts looking too clean and mine don't take to wafers and/or I find out they won't accept frozen zuchinni, I'll set up a little 10 gallon in the window with some rocks so I'll have a constant supply of algae platters to rotate into the main tank. :)

[khombre]

Though my idiot-child chinese algae eater (blame the husband, no me!)
is sulking. Everytime he goes to hoover a surface and finds an oto in his way, he zips off and hides in the plants for the next twenty minutes or so.

did u say chinese algae eater? watch out if this is what u have.. they hav bad reps of being too aggressive as they grow...
but better check if this is really CAE or a siamese algae eater.. they look alike but the temperaments are way different

gud luck with what u have going :)

[LunchBox]

I've seen my otos eat green beans and asparagus, which is a nice treat for them :)

congrats on the healthy oto population! I only wish I'd been as successful as you (3 of 9 are all I have left)

[Wishful]

It's a Chinese algae eater, no question. Growing like a weed. And I plan to purge him from the tank when we switch over to the 125gal we're in the process of building a stand for. I'd try to catch him now, but the tank's heavily planted and I don't want to disturb it too much with new fish settling in.

Interestingly, one of the oto's--identifiable by a slight "jog" in the stripe near his tail-is happily munching his way thru the long older algae growth on my plants. The rest prefer the young algae growth and won't take more than a quick nibble at the old stuff.

[Fangirl]

My Otos love zuchini. I slice a 1/4 ring off of the fresh zuchini and then blanch it in a small pyrex bowl of water for about 40 seconds. This softens up the veggie. I then clip it to the tank wall with a veggie clip. THEY LOVE IT. My swordtails also munch on it. All they leave is the green skin ring when they are finished! I also add a piece of algae wafer every night, but I am not sure if they are eating it. It is gone in the morning though.

[Wishful]

Since I don't keep zuchinni in the house much, I tried my tank on baby cucumber last night. The CAE was the first to find it but the otos soon figured out it was food as well. For about 10 minutes the scene reminded me of a large shark being circled by smaller sharks in a feeding frenzy. The CAE kept trying to drive the oto's off, but all six were circling and darting in behind him and under his belly to grab a couple bites before he'd swirl around and try to drive another one off. The corys wandered by a few times but I never saw one take so much as a nibble. Overall the otos seem much more interest in algae--which makes me VERY happy. :)