4 Otto's disapear from my 120 tank

[CWO4GUNNER]

Well to the credit of those of you that said so, very late last night in only indirect moon light from my nitrate filter, I counted a shoal of 7 Otto's grazing the glass. This means that since I only added 5 Otto’s yesterday, there are at least 2 accounted for of the original 4 missing. I placed a slice of zucchini against the glass and to my surprise although they would land on it, they wouldn't eat it. So then I switched to a slice of cucumber which most fish like more, but to my disappointment only my Silver dollars would touch it. So apparently there is enough algae growing on the glass to feed them for now, probably due to my high phosphates count (10 PPM). Anyway if 2 of 4 showed back up perhaps I will see the other 2 some evening for a total of 9 Otto's lol. Thanks again all for your thoughts.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

FYI. I meant to post a pic of my 5 new adult size Otto's and the Plexiglas cover I had cut at Lowes with the extra piece I custom cut to cover the back two exposed inches and around the hand filter and canister lines. Notice the rough cut but it works great lol.

 

[Crispino Ramos]

that has happened to my otos, i think they died and got eaten or just decayed.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Here's a side thought that occurred to me about this acrylic or Plexiglas cover I had cut to replace my broken glass cover and keep my Otto's from jumping. Since it is well known that acrylic insulates and conserves heat much better then glass, and we all know that the majority heat always rises and escapes from above like in a home, wouldn't having an acrylic cover make a substantial difference in an all glass aquariums to stop the majority of rising heat from escaping like on an acrylic tank (best of both worlds)?

 

[vanillarum]

I have 4 ottos in a 10 gal and I never see them, I can only imagine what it must be like in your 120 !

 

[pinkertd]

Masters at hiding! Even when you're hand is in the tank cleaning!:grinyes:
You will have oto sightings more often now that you have a nice little group.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Yeah its wired as I see them mostly at night now in different groups. Last night I saw a small group of 4 and one of them was tiny that I thought had surly died as I tried not to accept him from the LFS for being too small the size of a paper matche, but some Pet Smart attendants don't always allow you to pick and choose. Anyway that makes 8 of a total of 9 that I have seen in the last couple of night. Sure hope they get enough to eat as they wont eat zucchini offerings. Sometimes I'm reluctant to clean off the aquarium glass of the light algae growing on it. I do notice where they congregate the glass is clean but there is far more left to clean so I leave them the back glass uncleaned and hope its enough.

 

[vanillarum]

I also feed mine Hikari algae wafers (a favorite), and spirulina pellets (from Ken's) as well as the fresh zucchini. They will also eat shelled peas, but mine seem to prefer the algae wafers over everything else. Good luck.

 

[jpappy789]

Glad to hear you found them, and nice new otos!

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Well over the last week I found 3 of 8 Otto's dead and pretty sucked clean as they were white and missing their colored skin. This is just in my 120 tank the 4 in my 60 tank are doing fine. I think I had too many in the 120 tank as I noticed I haven't had to clean the glass of algae at all this month (spotless) even though one side sits next to a window that receives daylight all day. I guess I better start using the "Algae Grazers" at night or tie them up inside a small ornament Otto's can only fit inside. Water parameters in both my tanks are always zero except for PH 7.4 and Nitrates 10-20 tops. I think after this batch of Otto's if they all pass like most people say they do, Im going back to something I can see better like another Pleco but no common, something under 6" max growth, just have to do my research and find a small efficient hardy Pleco species and keep him on a diet, not a zucchini cow.