Otocinclus Cocama - A Zebra's Journal

[James0816]

Coming back from taking a little bit of hiatus during the holidays.

The Cocama's have been really active of late. There is one definate female. I believe there may be one more but still a bit on the young side to determine. The older lady from time to time does have a couple guys around her but I haven't seen any tell tale signs of a hint of a spawn. Just social get togethers.

As with the old tank, this tank as well just doesn't seem to want to produce the nice lush planted environment as the others. I'm leaning towards the lighting now actually being a bit too much. I will be making an adjustment to this as I clean up the tank a bit. The Fissidens didn't even take hold which surprised me a bit. I'll try to salvage what I can of it and see if I can work with it in another tank for now.

 

[James0816]

So it's been a long spell between updates here and unfortunately, there hasn't been anything to report. The tank just isn't responding like the other Oto tanks in terms of plant growth. Starting this evening, I'm taking another big swing at it.

We're going to start with a massive snail removal effort. If I can find it....it's coming out. I'll also cleanse all the plants from egg sacks as well. I bet this impacts their grazing grounds.

I've already replaced the lighting over the tank but still haven't seen much from the plants. Very odd if you ask me. Same conditions as some of the better growing tanks but they don't seem to want to cooperate. Haven't put my finger on it as yet but I'll figure it out.

We'll reset the tank by doing a good gravel vac and then replant.

I'm also planning on relocating the Caridina thambipillai. Being a larger shrimp (compared to others), it will make for less activity for the Otos. When I can find them again, I'll be adding some Caridina serratirostris to this tank.

 

[James0816]

Well...tank is all cleared out. Removed a ton of snails. Still have a few more to get this morning as I spied when the lights came on but nothing major. Found some egg sacks on the glass to remove as well.

As for shrimp, I have relocated the C. thams. I also have a small Tangerine Tiger project in this tank as well. My TT's threw a couple of white/clear tigers with orange eyes. I've seperated all them and put them in this tank. So there are a total of (6) of these shrimp in this tank now.

Today I will do some more gravel vac'ing and washing off the plants to put back in. I'm in the market for some small flat(ish) driftwood as well to build a ledge.