Several Otos swimming upside down the glass?

Turin Turambar

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Feb 27, 2003
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I bought 8 Otos five days ago. For the first 24h all of them were stuck on the glass and then began eating the diatoms on the plants. However, the next day, several of them began swimming upside-down the glass. They seem happy, but I don't know why are they doing this dance? Half of them still like to do that for most of the day, while others are in the plants...

Is this their normal behaviour?
 
Oto's are usually pretty busy. So long as they don't have sad sunken tummies, and you know they're eating, I wouldn't worry. Chasing and running around frantically might be a sign that they aren't getting enough--if this is a newer tank, or lightly planted, for example. Otherwise, might be spawning behavior--frantic 'I need food' and 'hey! we should make babies' can look pretty similar.
 
Thanks OrionGirl. Well my tank is heavily planted and had lots of diatoms... they pretty much cleared everything from the plants but didn't touch the glass. I will buy them some spirulina tablets tomorrow, just to be sure.

What kind of algae they eat? I know they love brown/diatoms, but do they eat spot algae or green/hair?
 
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