Can otos scratch acrylic?

Chrisk-K

Chrisk-K

Theodore P. Charles Fellow of AC
Dec 1, 2009
897
0
0
Maryland
Does anyone here have otos in an acrylic tank? Can they scratch it? I'd like to get 2 to control diatoms.
 
I am not really sure, the ones that I have are in a glass tank. I for a fact that plecos would be a problem but not really sure about the ottos.

I wonder if anyone has an existing setup that would be able to comment.
 
i dont think they can but i cant say for sure. otos dont have the kind of teeth that wood rasping plecos do, because they eat differant things. I doubt if they would hurt acrylic
 
Puppy farts, whispers, and dirty looks have all been known to scratch acrylic. I had a friend who's acrylic tank would scratch itself if people weren't paying attention to it. Must have been one of them emo models.



On a more serious note though, I wouldn't put it past any rasping fish to be able to scratch acrylic easily. Having never kept otos in an acrylic setup, I wouldnt know for sure, but I would not be at all surprised.
 
I seriously doubt an oto can do that sort of damage to acrylic. I've had all sorts of plecos and the only ones that did noticeable damage were some very large Royal Plecos. You can actually hear the rasping noise through the tank.
 
Until just a couple of days ago I had 3 otos in my 12-gallon acrylic tank. For some reason, one died. So I replaced the dead one with 2 juvenile otos. I've never had an issue with the otos scratching the tank. Me? Yes, definitely, but not the otos.
 
I figured that this would be the case, because mine have a hard time removing some algae if it is to tough for them. I didn't want to comment before for fear of giving you misinformation, but I do think that they are on the weaker side of most algae eating fish. However, it would suck if your tank developed little circular patters running across it.

I think that it is a better option than glass because of the viewing aspect of it, as well as the fact that it is more insulating than the glass counter part. Although, as mentioned above, they are vary easily scratched by pretty much anything. If you even so much as clean it with the wrong cloth/ over clean the outside you will probably create same hair line scratches just from that.
 
Let me just say that I won't buy an acrylic tank again :-)
 
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