Well, so far so good. All five new ottos are fairing well with full bellies and all. They actually prefer the brown algea over the cucumber I've placed in there. They're also cleaning my gravel, which is an added bonus for me 
. I was under the impression they only grazed on broad-leafed plants, glass, rocks etc. All of them have good bright coloring and also seem to be growing. My other fish are doing just as fine. In fact, I believ they've bred because I found two tiny fish fry while siphoning the gravel. I immediately scooped them out of my 5gal bucket, put them in a small container, then when I finished the water change I placed them back in the tank. They swam into the hornwart, which I've read is good for fry to hide in. Plants seem to be thriving. After adding laterite gravel under the top layer, and planting them, the anubias have sprouted a few new leaves and gotten larger. The hornwart is growing steady, too. I would like to get more of it though. It has done well in my tank among the other plants I've tried. The softer leafed plants tend to die in very hard water such as mine. I'd like to find some ther less demanding, bristley plants, too. At first, the hornwart seemed to have growth spurts after being transplanted, but now the growth rate seems to have slowed a bit or, but maybe I'm just a bit impatient. Still looking forward to getting 4 new swordtails within the next few weeks. After that, my fish stocking will be done. I can't push it much more than that with my tank size or filter. Speaking of my filter, I've bought sponges now to replace the carbon filters. The problem I had with this was the fact that every time I'd replace these cartridges I'd lose the bacterial colony that's helpful to me. So now, instead of replacing every month, I wash out the sponges with aquarium water without tossing the colony, while still maintaining mechanical and biological filtration. Just wanted to share my experience so far in the hobby. I truly enjoy being able to watch the ecosystem inside this glass box. I have to say the thing I enjoy the most is watching the social orders that occur among the fish housed together.
. I was under the impression they only grazed on broad-leafed plants, glass, rocks etc. All of them have good bright coloring and also seem to be growing. My other fish are doing just as fine. In fact, I believ they've bred because I found two tiny fish fry while siphoning the gravel. I immediately scooped them out of my 5gal bucket, put them in a small container, then when I finished the water change I placed them back in the tank. They swam into the hornwart, which I've read is good for fry to hide in. Plants seem to be thriving. After adding laterite gravel under the top layer, and planting them, the anubias have sprouted a few new leaves and gotten larger. The hornwart is growing steady, too. I would like to get more of it though. It has done well in my tank among the other plants I've tried. The softer leafed plants tend to die in very hard water such as mine. I'd like to find some ther less demanding, bristley plants, too. At first, the hornwart seemed to have growth spurts after being transplanted, but now the growth rate seems to have slowed a bit or, but maybe I'm just a bit impatient. Still looking forward to getting 4 new swordtails within the next few weeks. After that, my fish stocking will be done. I can't push it much more than that with my tank size or filter. Speaking of my filter, I've bought sponges now to replace the carbon filters. The problem I had with this was the fact that every time I'd replace these cartridges I'd lose the bacterial colony that's helpful to me. So now, instead of replacing every month, I wash out the sponges with aquarium water without tossing the colony, while still maintaining mechanical and biological filtration. Just wanted to share my experience so far in the hobby. I truly enjoy being able to watch the ecosystem inside this glass box. I have to say the thing I enjoy the most is watching the social orders that occur among the fish housed together.
