The Oto Journal

[James0816]

06/20: Lots of wigglers around this morn. Couple eggs still hatching as well. Had to take some shots before I left this morn.

Hatching in progress. Yellow shrimp supervising.


Two newbies in this pic:


Another new wiggler:


Here's one of the juvies:


Here's a second. There are three juvies in the tank now. The biggest one wouldn't sit still long enough for a pic.


Here's mama working in the crypt jungle. Dad is on the other side of the tank. Couldn't get a good pic of him

 

[pinkertd]

Very cute James!

 

[James0816]

06/25: Checked on the guys today. Getting ready to do another water change. At initial look, all appears to be just fine. Mom and Dad are hanging out together again. Will be on the watch for eggs.

As for babies, I counted (8). Getting bigger every day. All are coloring up. I only saw two that are pretty small/newish. Still have the (3) juvies and (3) others that approaching juvy status.

Working on my other tanks at the moment so can't finish the plants. Which seems to be a good thing. Most of the babies are really working over the crypt jungle.

Quit a few yellow shrimp in there as well. Need to start looking into thining the herd.

 

[pinkertd]

I think it's good that you leave the plants alone while they're feeding off of them and doing well.

 

[James0816]

Yeah...every now and then I'll catch them in the Rotala and Repens but boy do they love the crypts! Probably because such a big leaf mass.

Gettin ready to throw a piece of zuc in there as well.

 

[James0816]

06/27: All appears to be doing well in the Oto tank. Lots of babies swimming around. Was hard to get an accurate count. I did manage to fire off some pics. Here's the best ones from today:

Mom and a baby muching a zuc:

Let's all gather around the zuc:

A yellow shrimp just observing it all:

 

[weldon]

What do you do to get the zucchini to sink?

 

[James0816]

Nuke it for about 3 mins. I do it this way to get it a little on the mushy side. Helps the little ones eat it better.

 

[James0816]

07/01: Checked on my babies today. All is well. Alot of activity. Didn't bother counting today. Zuchini's are dissapearing fast! Between the Oto's and the shrimps...they all have full bellies.

On the plus side....I put in 4 briggs the other day. Babies wasted no time workin over the shells. And wouldn't ya know it...I didn't have the camera at that time to catch it. A couple of them had 2-3 babies on the shells.

Getting ready to add more zuc and recharge Co2. I have two more jungles to take care of then I get the plants in the Oto tank squared away again.

 

[James0816]

07/07: Still not a whole lot of time to do much unfortunately. I did get home in time to get a peek in the tank. Lights went out shortly after I got home. I didn't spot any new eggs or wigglers. Hopefully they just need a break. I did find that my Co2 wasn't working so had to change bottles. Still need to do a water test. I think the parameters have dropped since no Co2.

On the baby front, I did see about (6) juvies around. That's a good sign at least. I'll be able to more tomorrow as I will have a short day.