ottos???

Ottos are small algae eating bottom dwellers. They do quite well in a tank as long as you have an established algae source. It can be difficult to supplement their feeding so they should only be purchased if you are sure you will have an adequate food source. They do best in small schools. This being said, I have never owned them. How is your tank doing? Are the nitrites resolved? They are a critter to be added to an established tank where their nutritional needs will be met. You could look into shrimp as well if your tank parameters are resolved...is this about a diatom issue? Sorry to grill you, just want to help.

I agree with everything said above. However, I will add that they can be hard to switch from algae to other types of foods (algae wafers, zucchini) and some will starve because they refuse to eat anything other then algae. When I got mine, I thought i would have enough algae to last them a while but they cleaned it all up after 48 hours and then they had nothing to eat after that. I do put algae wafers in there but i'm not totally sure if they eat it because i put it in after lights out (to stop other fish from eating it). Now i have to switch them back and forth from my 20g. to 50g. to always make sure they have enough to eat...as you can tell i didn't do enough research when i got them.

I love ottos, but after owning probably a dozen I've realized I'll never be able to keep the poor dears alive. I've heard of folks who put a bucket of water in sunlight with a rock inside, grow some algae, then put the rock in the tank to feed the ottos.

If your tank is small, consider some easy shrimp like red cherry shrimp.

I keep my otos (3 of them) in a 20g long tank with no background that sits directly in front of a south-facing window, and I set the light timer to be on 12 hours a day for more algae growth, and I still have to supplement their diet with algae wafers and veggies. It also took several months to get them trained to readily accept alternate foods, especially wafers. There is never so much as a speck of visible algae in the tank, because those little piglets eat it ALL. They are voracious eaters, to put it mildly.

Oh, and I know they're generally considered "bottom dwellers" but they don't spend any significant amount of time on the bottom of the tank. They're almost always on the walls, plant leaves, rocks or driftwood. Mine are only ever on the bottom when I've put zucchini there.

They're cute as anything, especially when they're zipping around together, but unless you're prepared to deal with their feeding needs, they can easily starve to death.

rachelmayt said:

Is it safe to get one or two then, i do have alot of diatom in the tank. The tank has settled after a long mini-cycle, I do not want to scrape anything off, for fear I might send it into another cycle, for that is kind of what happened last time. Anyway I do have alot of diatom, and I was thinking of getting 2 ottos.

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You can give it a shot. Only luck can push you far.

Snails, I have heard mixed things about them. They are hard to keep, or they produce like mice.

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It depends on which species you are keeping. Try www.applesnail.net for more information on keeping them.

With that said. I want something small that will help with the issues of algea, and not harm my other fish. Ottos seem to be the one that keeps comming up to be the one to go with?? I am open for suggestions, and I do not mind all the questions. I want the help, so thanks.

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What other fish do you have? I admit I can't really think much of what else to keep with your fish that will consume diatoms but if you do provide the stocklist, other people will be able to chime for more opinions.

Glad to hear that your mini-cycle resolved after all your hard work! Ottos will work, you just have to heed the advice about feeding them. Even if your tank is full of algae, try and supplement them from the start. I don't have any ottos because I really don't ahve algae (probably because of my invert addiction). Ottos will not harm your other fish.

What size is your tank? Otos are really social, and should be kept in groups. I'd keep more with my 3 in the 20g long, but unless I put a zillion watts of light on it, I can't grow enough algae to feed any more of them. Mine will take veggies and even wafers, but they eat them kind of grudgingly. They have no choice in the winter though, because even though the tank's in front of a window there's a lot less sunlight now. However, all 3 have round little bellies and on the rare occasion that they're not stuffing their little fish faces, they skitter around the tank together in a little group, so they seem content even though there are only three of them. I'd love to see them in a group of 6 or 8, but I'm afraid to get more in case I'm not lucky enough to convince the new ones to eat supplements.