Feeding of Oto's

Logy

Logy

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Sep 27, 2006
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North Bay, Ontario
I got 2 Oto's for my lightly planted tank. In a few days they quickly made work of the brown algae I had taking over the tank. Now that the algae is gone I've heard you have to suppliment thier diets with algae wafers and blanched veggies such as zuchinni. I've dropped in 2 wafers so far. One I dropped in during the day, on a piece of slate they like to hang out on and they didn't touch it. The second wafer I dropped in was at night and they still didn't touch it. The packaging says not to leave the wafers in for more than 12 hours..but in this time my oto's don't seem to be touching the stuff. Tonight I am going to try my luck with some blanched zuchinni. I'm just concerned because I heard they are often mistreated and underfed at pet stores and are hard to acclimatize =O This is not so much of a question as a concern. I really hope they go for the zuchinni. Any other feeding suggestions or how I might get them to eat the wafers?

Thanks,
Logy
 
It is possible that they aren't used to the idea of eating wafers yet. In my aquarium I rarely see my otos join my cories in eating wafers and such. In fact the only time I normally see them seemingly grazing is at night and I can't even tell what they are snacking on. That is to say when I look at my aquarium I see very little algae.
 
ive been tossing in some hikari wafers in my planted tank for about 3 weeks but my otos dont seem to eat it. they probably just like all the stankin algea that i have in the tank already. they have fat little bellies!! (haha, fat and little???)
 
my otos love Omega One Veggie Rounds. I've noticed that many brands of algae wafers contain more fish and shrimp meal than they do algae or vegetable matter (don't know about Hikari). But the Omega One sinking algae Rounds list kelp and spirulina first, so a true herbivore food. It's also got fresh seafood for protein :)
 
Well I tried another brand of wafers and my little oto's still don't seem interested in them at all. I was at the grocery store the other day and picked up a zuchinni for them. I cut off a small piece and blanched it and than put it at the bottom of my tank. One of my oto's grazed it but didn't stick around for long. They are sucking on the glass and other tank decor, so though I can't see any algae, perhaps they are eating some invisible organisms =O

Now one of my oto's is exhibiting normal behaviour. He sucks on tank decor and the tank itself, and swims about the tank normally. Even while at rest I see his little mouth going. The second oto swims up and down against the glass on right side of my tank as if trying to escape and when he is at rest his little mouth isn't going at all. He seems all cracked out so I have named him Rocks! =p I hope they both make it. I got them last Wednesday. Any reasons you guys can think of for the strange behaviour of Rocks? He doesn't appear sick.

Thanks in advance,
Logy
 
plah831 said:
my otos love Omega One Veggie Rounds. I've noticed that many brands of algae wafers contain more fish and shrimp meal than they do algae or vegetable matter (don't know about Hikari). But the Omega One sinking algae Rounds list kelp and spirulina first, so a true herbivore food. It's also got fresh seafood for protein :)
Click to expand...


Hikari makes different kinds of wafers, sinking wafers are more meat, algae wafers are more vegetable. I use a combo of both for my rubberlip and mystery snail.
 
Ottos are really small. So is thier food. They can eat algae that we can't even see. Unless they start to apear thin I wouldnt worry too much. Try the zuchinni now, or even algae wafers again if it seems they are loosing weight.
 
I've read everywhere that if they have roundish, fat little bellies...they are getting enough to eat. I tried Hikari algae discs as well, and they didn't really eat them. I've got 4 in my 100gal tank, and I think I have enough algae for twice that number. More available food for these guys is a good thing.

v/r, N-A
 
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