The Oto Journal
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The Oto Journal - Update 20-Mar-2011
Great News! Morning check of the tanks and I found (5) wigglers in one of the tanks. Awesome! Funny thing, I never saw any eggs so this placement was in secrecy.
I didn't stay down there too long as there was a lot of activity going on. Females are scanning the terrain with males at a close distance. Might have a bigger spawn getting ready to occur.
This was ahead of a planned 20% water change today. I will hold off on the WC in the tank with the fry and just do a water test and see what kind of parms we have. The fry are in one of the tanks that had a higher than normal nitrAte level.
Fresh zucchini to be prepped.
Great News! Morning check of the tanks and I found (5) wigglers in one of the tanks. Awesome! Funny thing, I never saw any eggs so this placement was in secrecy.
I didn't stay down there too long as there was a lot of activity going on. Females are scanning the terrain with males at a close distance. Might have a bigger spawn getting ready to occur.This was ahead of a planned 20% water change today. I will hold off on the WC in the tank with the fry and just do a water test and see what kind of parms we have. The fry are in one of the tanks that had a higher than normal nitrAte level.
Fresh zucchini to be prepped.
Still counted (5) wigglers ahead of the lights going out. Tap water is still a little cloudy from the past big rains we had. I needed to change the water so added carbon to the filters to be on the safe side. Still doing 25% changes on all tanks except the one with the fry.
James, I may sound crazy but I read all 59 pages tonight, and agree with everyone else that what you are doing is amazing. I have wanted to do the exact same thing as you since coming across a page on Otocinclus weeks ago. I have since planned my next tank setup around growing Otos exclusively.
A large, disappointing majority of what I have read about Otos said that they are horrible to acclimate, have high mortality rates, are picky eaters and starve, won't spawn above 6.8pH, and one thread I read actually discouraged aquarists from keeping Otos completely. Regardless of all that I wanted to create an Oto haven, to breed stronger tank-bred versions, and now I see you have done just that! Congratulations on your nearly 2 years of success and research. I hope to compare notes with you in the coming weeks and months when I am able to acclimate my first Otos.
I am going to take your advice and start with my 10gal. first, while establishing my brand new '40gal. breeder' tank. Thanks for sharing all of this information with us, and I love the hundreds of photos too! Your photography has really progressed just as well as your care for Otos.
A large, disappointing majority of what I have read about Otos said that they are horrible to acclimate, have high mortality rates, are picky eaters and starve, won't spawn above 6.8pH, and one thread I read actually discouraged aquarists from keeping Otos completely. Regardless of all that I wanted to create an Oto haven, to breed stronger tank-bred versions, and now I see you have done just that! Congratulations on your nearly 2 years of success and research. I hope to compare notes with you in the coming weeks and months when I am able to acclimate my first Otos.
I am going to take your advice and start with my 10gal. first, while establishing my brand new '40gal. breeder' tank. Thanks for sharing all of this information with us, and I love the hundreds of photos too! Your photography has really progressed just as well as your care for Otos.
Update 28-Mar-2011
Got back from the docs office with my daughter. All is well with her hand. They confirmed an incomplete non-conforming fracture. Whatever that means. Nothing serious and should heal up nicely.
Went downstairs to dose the tanks with ferts. Made it to the bottom step when I noticed the "hornets nest of activitiy" going on in one of the tanks. Tell tell signs of a spawn. I did notice (2) females and it looked about (4) males working over the Bacopa section.
I'll go back down in a bit a check on things.
Got back from the docs office with my daughter. All is well with her hand. They confirmed an incomplete non-conforming fracture. Whatever that means. Nothing serious and should heal up nicely.
Went downstairs to dose the tanks with ferts. Made it to the bottom step when I noticed the "hornets nest of activitiy" going on in one of the tanks. Tell tell signs of a spawn. I did notice (2) females and it looked about (4) males working over the Bacopa section.
I'll go back down in a bit a check on things.
Confirmed the spawn in one tank. Was able to locate a few eggs in the Bacopa as suspected. The ladies are working deep in the Crypts and Java Fern at the moment. Now the the Amano's are at test. We'll see how they do with eggs in the tank. Granted I can only see a few eggs at this time, but at least I know where to look at the moment. If they go missing, the Amano's get moved; plain and simple. Did manage to dose the tanks while I was down there. Limiting my activity around there since the spawn is still going on. Probably won't be returning until later this evening.
Hey James, I was trying to research how best to grow diatoms/algae for Otos and inevitably came across a few of your own threads on the same subject. Did you ever find the best way to do it?
With a planted aquarium [required of Otos] I have constantly wondered how the balancing act between light/CO2/nutrients for plant growth, and enough extra for algae growth, could ever be achieved, if at all. Going even further and attempting to promote just brown diatoms and green spot algae seemed an even harder goal on top of that. While digging around I either came across people asking the questions and never really getting an answer, or scientific journals speaking in code [Chemistry
] about the micro chemical processes involved, but no real 'recipe' other than noting lights and silicates are involved.
What would you suggest, or have you just trained your Oto fry onto fine powder and zucchini very early-on?
With a planted aquarium [required of Otos] I have constantly wondered how the balancing act between light/CO2/nutrients for plant growth, and enough extra for algae growth, could ever be achieved, if at all. Going even further and attempting to promote just brown diatoms and green spot algae seemed an even harder goal on top of that. While digging around I either came across people asking the questions and never really getting an answer, or scientific journals speaking in code [Chemistry
] about the micro chemical processes involved, but no real 'recipe' other than noting lights and silicates are involved. What would you suggest, or have you just trained your Oto fry onto fine powder and zucchini very early-on?
A couple things stand out here.
Early on, I did try to have a fry tank where I would try to raise them in. The tank had plenty of diatoms in it. What I found however, that in moving the eggs or fry over to this tank, I would have greater losses than that of just leaving them in the breeder and let them grow from there. This is where the powdered blend comes in. By coating the surfaces with it and keeping a constant supply of zucchini in the tank, there was definately no lack of food. It did, however, result in more frequent filter maintenance as the powder would of course eventually clog the pre-filters and media pads. Just rinse them out every other day and all is well.
As for growing diatoms, what I found was to keep a constant supply of silica in the tank. I would rotate out containers of silica sand from time to time and that seemed to work rather well.
Early on, I did try to have a fry tank where I would try to raise them in. The tank had plenty of diatoms in it. What I found however, that in moving the eggs or fry over to this tank, I would have greater losses than that of just leaving them in the breeder and let them grow from there. This is where the powdered blend comes in. By coating the surfaces with it and keeping a constant supply of zucchini in the tank, there was definately no lack of food. It did, however, result in more frequent filter maintenance as the powder would of course eventually clog the pre-filters and media pads. Just rinse them out every other day and all is well.
As for growing diatoms, what I found was to keep a constant supply of silica in the tank. I would rotate out containers of silica sand from time to time and that seemed to work rather well.
