otos dying, please help!

[LunchBox]

so the other day I purchsed some otos (6 of them at about 1" each) to control the algae I have in my tank now. since my cycle has been nearing an end I thought this would be ok.

Well, over the last couple days I've lost 2 otos and 1 more isn't looking so hot. the first had wounds on it, and I figured that was why it died. the second one and the currently not-so-great-looking one have just become listless. they will sit at the bottom of the tank for a day or so with their dorsal fin down and then just pass away in the night. I've supplemented their algae with some veggies, and the'd eaten a little of it, but not much.

I've been trying to figure out what the problem could be but I have no clue. can anyone help me? Here is the current tank situation:

Ph:8.0
Kh:15dKh or about 269ppm according to my test kit
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:0

those are my current tests from this morning. My Ph has been steady the whole time at 8.0, my ammonia went to 0 on februiary 21, my nitrites have been at 0 since march 1, and I haven't seen any nitrates yet. my Kh has risen since my last test which was about 2 weeks ago. That test had it at 11dKh. I have been dosing some salt to try and control some mouth fungus problems with a couple of my bloodfins (which none have died yet) so maybe that is why it went up? I've been dosing during water changes, with 1Tsp per gallon of changed water (so if I change 10 gallons I put in 10Tsp with the water change).

I'm wondering if my water is just too darn hard fo the little guys, but I'm not sure. I know a lot of people have problems with otos, so I suppose this isn't too unusual, but I really liek the little fellers. Thanks for any insight you can give me :bowing:

 

[YuccaPatrol]

This is just from my experience, but every time I buy Otos, they seem to have a hard time acclimating to new conditions. Last time I bought them, I bought 3 of them. One died the next day, another died 2 weeks later, and the last one is still with me. This is in an aquarium with some very sensitive fish like hatchetfish which I do have luck keeping alive.

Knowing that Otos have difficulty adapting to changes, I watched the new batch of Otos at my LFS. This is a store where I have never seen diseased fish and rarely see a dead fish in their tanks. I came 2 days after they had received them and noticed that about half of them did not look very happy, and some looked near death. I waited several more days and came back to see that all remaining ones did look ok so I bought 3 of them.

I just don't think you can blame yourself for the death of an Oto

 

[cedwards]

My experience with Otos is limited, I just recently got some. The first 4 I bought at PS - they all died within the first 2 weeks. Then I bought 6 at my LFS, which I don't particularly like but thought I'd give them a shot, and they have all made it so far. One has a really swolen gut and doesn't look so good, but is still acting normal. After reading lots of posts on here my expectation would be to lose some but I'm hoping for the best this time around.

 

[Holly9937]

I just think you need to wait until your tank is stable before you try to add them again. They can be a bit sensitive and the tank just has too much going on. Plus, its not a good idea to add fish to a tank that has any sort of illness in it. You are just introducing healthy fish to disease. If you do not have nitrates yet, you are not near the end of the cycle, keep testing, I would imagine you might still experience a spike in the ammonia or nirtrite at some point. What size tank is this? Is it planted?

 

[Star_Rider]

You can do some research on Otocinclus and find there is a lot of discussion a bout the capture method of Oto's..I don't believe the produce in captivity but I could be wrong.
this method has been blamed for the problem you find with oto's.

That being said I have them in my 10 gallon 3 of them..and they so far are doing fine..they do need to eat contantly..mine have been feasting on brn algae.

I also supplement wiht sinking wafers and zuke's..tho they prefer the wafer over zukes and prefer algae over wafers.

do you have live plants?/(they don't need them but they like them) how much algae is growing in the tank? are you feeding supplemental food?
how is the water condition? how frequently are you changing the water? my tank gets wc at least twice a week.(20%)

I understand that these fish live in fast moving water..don't be surprised it you find any in a lift tube in a ugf system...I may make it so mine have more access to the lift tube since there is algae growing there..

 

[budrecki]

What kind of test are you using, liquid or strips? You should not have ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 with fish in tank, unless you just did a 100% water change. Maybe you arn't testing correctly?

 

[LunchBox]

Ap master test kit (tubes and drops), following all the instructions. It seems weird to me as well that I'm not seeing anything, but that's the results. I test almost every day and after my ammonia fell off, I haven't seen it since. ditto with the nitrites. I did a 30% water change on saturday, just to do one. I've had the bloodfins in there since day 1, so I know ammonia is being produced, and brought in the otos last wednesday.

they've been eating the heck out of the brown algae in the tank for a few days and I started boiling veggies and sinking them down with a rock (thought about using a string to tie them down but all I had was a rubber band). They've been nibbling on the veggies and keep grazing on the glass, plants, driftwood. I have all cloth plants in the tank.

water changes were about every day when I was still seeing nitrites, but since they died off I have backed off to every other day. I have 2 powerheads running my UGF, one near the top of the tank and one near the bottom, so there should be plenty of current i nthere if thats something they like.

EDIT:: juts re-ran all my tests, double checking the procedures and everything and came up with the same results.

 

[budrecki]

Do you have plants? Alot of plants? Growing? This is the only place I can think of your nitrates going.

Roan, where are you?#@! She's the one you need.

 

[mduros]

I'm not Roan, but I would run out with a sample of water, or buy a new test kit, any test kit. I suspect that you are getting some false readings, and really don't know what you can do to try to prove/disprove that other than testing it elsewhere or with another kit.

I know this isn't going to help, but I cannot keep Otos alive. So, I don't even consider them anymore. I brought home a bunch of them, they died within the "guarantee" period, I got some more, same thing. It was heartbreaking. Anyhow, my set up is similar to yours with the UGF and powerheads, lightly planted aquarium, and it wasn't cycling, so I don't know why the little guys died, but they did.
Good luck,
Mary.

 

[LunchBox]

I have 6 cloth plants in the tank. no live ones.

I may have to get a different test for it just to check the results against something. The only thing besides the "fragile fish" idea is that maybe there is something in my tap water that does something to nitrates (I figure thta since I've seen ammonia and nitrite in the water before). I checked my public works department a while back and there are a numebr of things they treat our water with, but I can't think of anything that would affect it like this.

is it possible my fish are small enough and I'm changing water often enough to where nitrates just aren't reaching a point where they will show up on the test? seems improbable though. I dunno, this is kind of a weird problem, and it's only getting more confusing because of the strange water results.