The Oto Journal

Update 06-Apr-2011

Tried to snap some pics yesterday but they didn't turn out well. The fry I have seen are hanging out on the top side of crypt leaves near the water surface. Makes it hard to get the shot.

Water changes on tap for today.

Think I have formalized my rack plans (for the moment). Here are my planed tank assignments:

O. Cocama w/ Caridina propinqua (Special thanks to Todd who is donating a couple of female Cocama's. My original shipment was all males)
O. Macrospilus w/ Caridina serratirostris (Ninjas still not available as yet)
O. Vitatus w/ Caridina gracilirostris (Special thanks to Rachael who has made a contribution of Red Nose for the breeding efforts - and Amano's too)

Still have tanks waiting for O. Flexilis and O. Mimulus if I can locate them.

Lots of big plans on schedule for the warmer days. Ton of work to get things better organized. Looking forward to the expansion and continued efforts.
 
Update 06-Apr-2011

The Good, The Bad ... and the Ugly. That is how I will say this update will be.

We'll start with the Ugly. Came home and found (13) dead Tiger shrimp. All adults. Very odd. Thankfully all Otos are accounted for. No clue as to why the dead were only adults. No babes or juvies appeared to have been impacted. I have absolutely no clue as to what would cause this. I will do a water test in a bit.

On to the Bad, which is actually tied in with the Good. My shrimp shipment arrived today. Red Nose and Bamboo. The bad news was that one of the bags the bamboo shrimp were in leaked out. Oh No! Shrimpy was and still is alive. All shrimp are acclimating nice and slowly.

To the Good...outside of the shrimp arriving today, I also found more wigglers. Yay! Makes me feel a little better.

I'm still bummed about the Tigers. Maybe the test results will tell me something.
 
Went down to check on things and found yet another dead Tiger. Decided that I needed to do an emergency 25% water change. I also dosed the entire tank with Primes.

Some things to note but doubt they are a factor:

- Temp dropped down to near 70. It's fluctuating around 10 degrees from night to day. Suspecting a bad heater as it should remain around 78. Swapped out for a different heater and will see if I hit target temp prior to retiring for the night.
- pH came in at 7.2. Not concerned at all with that as it is only a .2 swing from norm.
- All other parms are normal and in the target range to include nitrAtes which is back to 20.

I'm also wondering if maybe I should run some carbon in the filter. Hmmm...will have to see the results from this water change and go from there.
 
That sucks about the Tiger's, the temp change was probobly what did it. How do you know when your Oto's are going to lay eggs?
 
user_name said:
How do you know when your Oto's are going to lay eggs?
Click to expand...

From what I have seen, the male and female will hang real close together. They will do some "bumping" of each other while they are side by side on the glass. Then she takes off and he is in pursuit. She'll do her ritual of cleaning a surface while he is nudging and then it happens. To put it in a nutshell.
 
Update 09-Apr-2011

I think my photo taking skills have dimenished greatly. I can not get any good shots of the fry guys. They are growing up nicely. Great coloring. They will meet their first water change this weekend.

At the main Vittatus tank, things still not looking so good for the Tigers. Losses continue to mount up. While not giving up, I have all but resigned to losing the colony. In a last ditch effort, I have removed about (50) babes and will relocate them. I have them in two seperate specimen containers which are inside another tank to keep heat on them until I'm ready to put them in their temporary home.

After which, I have broken down this tank but not completely. I have uprooted all the plants except the crypts. Even the great wall of Subwassertang has come down. To be safe, I had a large bowl of water standing by to keep the wall in while I did the work. I knew there was going to be shrimp hiding in there and was correct. Once I placed the wall in the water, I began to see several shrimp swimming about. As mean as it sounds, I unfortunately was willing to sacrifice these few for the good of the colony. The water was aged and I'm sure the pH was off by a good 1/2 point.

After this, I did a major gravel vac of the entire area; about 1/2 the tank. Now granted the water parms didn't support a major task as this but I felt I had nothing to lose. Pulled out all kinds of goodies. The two jugs are just completely dark. Took about 30 minutes for this and made sure to hit it as good as I could. When done, I started adding fresh spring water back to the tank via drip method. No filter is running at the moment due to the water level but have an air stone currently running. I dumped the bowl with the Subwassertang back into the tank. Hopefully those shrimpies will be ok.

Taking a break while the tank is slowly refilling, I have been watching the Oto's just going all over the place. Their activity is so high at the moment. It's as if this is what they have been waiting for. Papa Oto is so confused. He starts following one female around when another passes by which causes him to shift gears. :) They are just everywhere at the moment. Several shrimp are getting blind sided by them as they swim through the crypts.

Once the water level has topped off, I will reassemble the Subwassertang wall and get it back in place. I'll eventually be removing all the Tigers in favor of the Red Nose only to keep the numbers in check. This should allow the Otos open range of the tank with minimal activity.

Will recharge the CO2 after all is said and done as well.
 
Update 10-Apr-2011

Best shot I can manage to fire off at the moment. These little guys are just under 2 weeks. The made the water change just fine ... so far. It's only been a day.

OtoBaby_041011.jpg


They are grazing the leaves well going after the powdered food.
 
Do you have any information of what you use to make the powdered food, and also what fertilising you do in your small tanks ?

From what I've read over the last 6 months, I can remember that you use co2, decent lighting, aged water and your tanks are in a quiet location in the basement. Do you use individual heaters on each tank? And what sort of filtration do you use on your main Oto breeding tanks?
 
Do you have any information of what you use to make the powdered food? - The powered food is a combination of the Kens Veggie Flakes and sticks that I grind up into a very fine powder using a Magic Bullet. From time to time I will add a bit of seaweed into the mix. Nothing fancy but it works great for the fry. When feeding, I will place a small amount of powder into a test tube (like you would get in the API kits). Depending on the number of fry, it's usually about 1/4". Fill with 5ml of water and mix thoroughly. I will then pour this over the plants. It's also great with the adults too! :) The only draw back is that I have to clean the pre-filters more frequently.

What fertilising you do in your small tanks? - I dose dry ferts from AquariumFertilizer.com. Some tanks I use the pre-mixed ferts and on others I use EI.

From what I've read over the last 6 months, I can remember that you use co2, decent lighting, aged water and your tanks are in a quiet location in the basement.

Do you use individual heaters on each tank? - Yes, each tank has it's own heater.

What sort of filtration do you use on your main Oto breeding tanks? - All but one are HOBs. I currently have a ZooMed 501 on one of the tanks. I'm thinking of swapping it out to be more in line with the other tanks for current.
 
Update 12-Apr-2011

Started putting the main tank back together again. Not real happy with the way the Subwassertang wall turned out but I think it will be ok once it gets bushy again. I think I made it too compact. It just looks different. I think I have it lower than it was last time. I may build up that corner a bit but we'll see. Probably will wind up redoing it using a thinner portion of Sub.

Activity remains high so I have to get all the stems replanted and soon.

On a plus note, there have been no further Tiger casulties of late. I'm working on the new Tiger tank so they will probably make the move in the coming weeks. Once they have been relocated, the Red Nose will move in permanently. Being a low order breeder, this will keep the shrimp population/activity down for the Otos while at the same time maintaining the tank.

CO2 to be recharged today. I pulled it during the past week due to all the craziness going on in the tank.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom