The Oto Journal

Update 11-Mar-2010

Been a few days since last update.

Main tank: Visibily counted (6) fry guys yesterday. Looking quite plump and coloring up nicely. Moved over (3) Tiger shrimp from the juvie tank due to mysterious kill off over there. Duckweed erradication continues. Looks like I will need to trim the crypt jungle again soon.
Juvie tank: Found almost all of the Tiger shrimp dead the other day. Oto's are just fine, which is a good thing. Two water changes done with another slated for today. Best I can tell, (1) male tiger remains. He is being stubborn and doesn't want to leave the Java Fern. If I can catch him, I'll move him over to the Main tank as well. Very strange as nothing
has been added to the tank. Leads me to believe possible bad water used for a top off.

Test tank: Failed again. In what I thought would have been excellent conditions for the fry to survive (lots of diatoms, excellent water quality and constant running of air stone), it wasn't meant to be. I had that one successfull batch prior the power outage and nothing since. And now the strange part....my big fry guy that has been in there has vanished without a trace. No remains found at all. Yesterday I started breaking down the tank to give it a cleaning and revert it back to where it was. I removed all the plants and rocks, cleaned the pre-filter and filter and even sifted the sand. Nothing and no clue. I left some diatom growth on the sides and back for now. I may try the tank once again. Maybe the power outage did something funky with it and just needed a good once over. I'm contimplating moving a pair of O. Macrospilus in here. It doesn't match the specs of the main tank but may be worth a looksie.

Second Breeder: Still seeing a lot of "playfullness" from this pair but no spawn as yet. I don't think they feel very "comfortable" at this time. The flora hasn't gotten very established yet either but it's getting there. I have a few more to remove and some to add. There is no dense section to this tank as yet.
 
Update 12-Mar-2010

Finally able to catch the male tiger shrimp from the Juvie tank and relocate him to the main. That puts (4) tigers in the main, 2 females, 1 male, and 1 too small to know at this time.

Only found (2) fry in the main yesterday. Hopefully all just hiding.

Turned off the airstone this morning. Going to revert back to some earlier testing methods as I don't think running the air had the impact I was looking for.

Will be removing the remaining juvies from the main this weekend.

Test tank cleanup completed. I did leave the diatom growth on the sides and back panels for now as I will give it another go. Will keep it more tiddy this time. Removed all the rocks and gave the sand bed a good cleaning. It's all nice and bright in there once again. I'm shifting around some plants in a couple of tanks to get more flora in here.
 
Update 14-Mar-2010

Major changes today.

1) Had to thin the Crypt jungle. Always looks so different after replanting. At least it was easier to seperate all the different plants this time. The C. Retro was entangled a bit but nothing too bad. Wound up removing the mother plants of both species.

2) 30% water change due to the replanting of the crypt jungle. Removed all crypts and performed a pretty good vac of the substrate. Removed alot of gunk. Running the air stone full bore during and after the wc.

3) Moved over (2) juvies to the juvie tank.

4) Only (2) fry remain in the main tank. Hopefully they will do ok with the major changes.
5) On a sad note...I
lost Boris. I kinda expected it the way he has been acting of late. Makes me sad. He was such a big guy with character.

All the Tiger and Yellow shrimp doing just fine. One Tiger still carrying eggs. Got to see a yellow molt which was a pretty kewl scene.

Plan is to revert back to some earlier testing. Think I had better success. We'll see how it goes.
 
Update 15-Mar-2010

Kind of gotten away from posting water parms so I'll try to get that back on track. Here are the numbers from yesterday...the day after replanting the crypt jungle and doing a pretty good vac of the substrate:
Temp: 77
PH: 7.4
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
GH: 4
KH: 4
TDS: 101 (This number is way down from last recorded reading of 240. Guess I removed a fair amount of stuff when I re-did the crypts)

No room parms taken as I had moved the guages out temporarily. They are now back in place as well.

GH and KH numbers reflect the constant running of the airstone and inadequate CO2.

Recharged the CO2 and have it back in place under the filter. Airstone use back down to night time only after the lights go out.

Will be placing two small pieces of cuttlebone in the tank today. Have some Briggs on order. I'm just going to place (2) in the tank when they arrive.

Little more work to do with the Ludwigia and Downoi and that should take care of things for a while. I still have to trim down the Suesswassertang wall. Have to figure out the best way to do that.

Crypts are pretty thin looking without the mother plants in there. I hope I didn't make it too thin. I have others on stand to go back in there if need be. The lack of Duckweed is also adding to that effect.

Didn't find either of the two fry guys yesterday. I'm hoping they are fine and just hiding since the major overhaul.

I think that just about sums things up for now. I'll get some pics of the tank once the dust settles.
 
Update 16-Mar-2010

Eggs found! Came in to finish the scape with the Ludwigia and Downoi and found a bunch of eggs. Excellent! Hopefully this is a good sign that mama still feels comfortable with the environs after the change. Current count is (41). Cannot determine at this time if any are not viable however, there are a couple that I suspect of at this time.

Didn't look like too many in the crypt jungle this time which is understandable. Majority appear to be in the Ludwigia and Bacopa areas. I'll get better counts later.

Found one stem of L. Arcuata with at least (14) on it. Have made the decision to move this stem over to the test tank. Getting ready to test that water to try and match parms closely. <crosses fingers>

Also found (4) on the drop checker. lol

Working on some pics now.
 
I'll be getting some updated pics after the latest trim. The Downoi has done pretty well since adding it a while back. Was three stems and has bushed up nicely.
 
Photos from 16-Mar-2010

Final check of the eve yields (57). One egg has already been deemed unviable. There are a few that I am watching as suspect. We should know by tomorrow.

Now we'll see how the Tiger shrimp do with eggs in the tank. Hopefully they won't bother any good eggs.

Removed the stem of L. Acuata and placed it in the test tank. Counted (15) eggs on this stem. Water parms of test tank:

Temp: 75 - Turned it up a smidge.
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 10
GH - 4
KH - 3
TDS - 105

Airstone turned on for the eve. Prepping zucchini for all tanks.

Here are some shots from today:

I am watching these two closely. I believe the one on the right is not viable. Notice the color difference.
OtoEggs3_031610.jpg


One of mama's favorite spots...the Bacopa:
OtoEggs2_031610.jpg


Does yellow mean preggers...or is it the plus sign?
OtoEggs1_031610.jpg
 
Update 17-Mar-2010

Evening check and all seems to be right on track in both tanks. Found (2) non viable eggs in each tank. Much better results than recent batches.

Hatching will be soon. As I was snapping pics...I could see them move around in the eggs. Pretty kewl.

Some shots from today:
Egg shot shows one non-viable egg and development of others:
OtoEggs1_031710.jpg


A shot of the beautiful lady:
MamaOto_031710.jpg


And here is their current home. Since it will be a spell before I can finish it, figured I'd get a current shot of it up.
MainTank_031710-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Just amazing photos! Love the pregnancy test!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom