Otos dying?!?

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BurtonMan

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Nov 28, 2002
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Upton MA
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I added three Otos to my established 20Long a couple of weeks ago. Since then, two have died. Everyone else is healthy, there's no Ammonia or Nitrite. Nitrates are about 5ppm and ph is a stable 7.2 in moderately soft water.

No one is picking on these guys either.

What could be the problem?
 
Does this sound right? from www.skepticalaquarist.com :

Why newly-arrived Otos can die like flies. Otocinclus are notorious for dying like— well, like Otos—when you first get them home, though once they've acclimated to your planted tanks they live for years. Aquarists beat themselves up over this, but I think it's not our fault. Here's the thing: no vertebrate vegetarian can digest cellulose, not one! so each carries a species-specific community of anaerobic bacteria (and some protozoans) that do the work. Ruminants even have a special fore-stomach (the rumen) where grass is fermented in a rich bacterial soup, protected from stomach acids. Dairy cows are nourished, not so much by grass, but by bacterial by-products, which include some vitamins, and by digesting some bacteria (how ungrateful!). Now, look at the size of the Oto. Scarcely room for a billion gut bacteria in there to do the work, eh? Starved Otos in transit can lose so much of their gut bacteria that the internal ecosystem doesn't revive— even with a glut of tasty algae in your tank! It just passes through their system, like when you were too hasty eating that corn-on-the-cob, remember? Not much nutrition when the kernels passed right through, because your system couldn't digest them open. Otos need a jungley tank with lots of leaf surfaces to run over. But the vegetable supplement we give them (zucchini, spinach, etc.) isn't just a treat. It has to be constant, or else they won't have the gut bacteria to process the green treat when it finally does arrive. Hopefully with your algae, and plenty of natural green cover, and your constant feedings of spirulina flakes or algae wafers plus veggies every few days, Otos that aren't too far gone should thrive with you. Females are noticeably wider and plump, but though a healthy male is leaner, he shouldn't have a concave look, when seen from the side.
 
wetmans theory is as good as any i have seen.

all i know, is they die easily. so don't kill yourself over it, there was probably nothing you could do. just buy a couple extras next time....... i have lost many of them just to get a few healthy specimens to keep my tanks clean. i don't regret it, except for the fish dieing because they are little algae destroying machines.

good luck
 
i agree with the above. i had 3 that lived about 2 1/2 months and then they died. in that 2 1/2 month period i went through 16 of them. maybe if we keep buying them, we'll eventually get some that are hardy enough to live a full 6 months.:D
 
further thought: shared gut bacteria

You know how you always hear that Otos pine away on their own? I surmise that happy healthy Otos are sharing some of their gut bacteria. Maybe the best deal for a new Oto is to move in with a couple of healthy ones.

How do you fit this in with quaranbtine, eh?
 
I think it also depends on the quality of the stock. I bought five oto's, about a year ago. I haven't lost a single one since then (about one year ago). I would give them a try, if you're lucky, you'll have some great algae eaters in their. I recommend to get five or six then, mine really group together. It's nice to see them hanging on the front glass all five in row !
 
the stock are partially bad,i can't really know whether the stock is good because the LFS has tanks with fish dying and tanks with discus fry,all tanks are connected to a main filter somewhere.
 
The best Otos I find in NYC come from Win's on Mulberry Street, because he keeps them in a tank with plenty of well-developed algae.

Like their bigger Lory cousins, Otocinclus can be so starved in the long trip from Brazil and in the algae-free dealer's tanks, that your TLC still can't revive them. (E.T. in the oxygen tent)

If you can see all your Otos and count them, then your tank isn't densely-planted enough and there aren't enough Otos together. (well, that's almost true, anway).
 
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