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Congrats on your Otos ! I have 3 in my 10 gal fry tank and they're so neat to watch, leave the fry alone too !


The Amazon Nut...

Congrats Kitten! I adore my ottos! They are sooo efficient for being so little, just wanna eat eat eat. Great pic of that lil guy, he's AWAKE! Mine always seem to be focused on the algae. :88)

oh yeah, *off topic* re: wonder rock, Klee, it's coated w/epoxy so it's not porous and it's more like plastic than rock, doesn't hold the bioload as efficiently, so plant roots aren't as crazy about it

[span class="edited"][Edited by June 2004-09-06 22:53][/span]

Wonder rock? Umm... I'd have to go back to PetSmart and look... it's just regular aquarium gravel, not sure of the brand name. Plants seem to do fairly well, though I don't have as much light as I'd like. *shrugs*

Ottos are still doing good and I intend to add the second trio shortly. Not sure when, exactly, but soonish.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

That Oto looks alert and happy and he's not clamping it's fins.. Looks good to me With Otos they can be tricky and be totally fine for a month or 2 then bingo.. I'll cross my fingers for you that doesn't happen. I lost 4 that way. Mine are currently doing well so I'm grateful.

The Amazon Nut...

Just wondering, do you use wonder rock (because that's what it looks like)? If that's the case, how the HECK do you get anything to grow it in? Maybe it's just me, but the large size wonder rock pebbles aren't yielding good results in my planted tank. Stupid plants. :[

Nice, ottos, too. Very cute.

have fun with your ottos!
yes, they are cute, and they graze on the brown algea like there's no tommorow.
i had two of them, and they kept together, and were npt at all timid. they went on their foraging all day long.
the only thing that bothered them was one certain zebra danilo, that thought they are his kin, and schooled with them. it was both funny and sad seeing the otto trying to get out of that fish-on-acid's way, while the zebra keeps swimming behind him in school formation. usually the otto would break engagement by sticking to something, and the zebra lost him immediately.
mind you it was a certain danilo, not all of them. some fish are just dumb

Congrats on the otos and nice pics

Mine really like lettuce and spinach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Usually, a belly on an otto means a full and happy otto! I'm glad that they are working out well for you. They should all be even happier when you bring some more home, though. You'll have big otto get-togethers going on in your tank!

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Excuse the horrible streakiness of the glass (ye gods, I JUST cleaned the tank, you'd think I could clean the glass well!), but take a look at my otto. I just want to make sure y'all think he looks healthy and whatnot, seeing as I've never kept these cuties before.



He's got a lil tummy on him, so can I assume he's getting enough to eat? They all look like him and they're always scurrying around everywhere and slurping on the glass and such. They even had a thin slice of zucchini yesterday and I came home to find it completely gone. I sucked up the skin with the gravel vac.

I'm surprised to see that my ottos are quite active and don't hide much. I can usually find at least two of them sucking on the glass and can generally find all three if I look for them. This will just improve when I get the other three ottos, right? I'm thinking I'll be going back for them this weekend if all goes well. [/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

It was a sad, sad day when my beloved albino BN plec - Daffy Dilly - died. Since I loved my silly little guy so, I wanted to get someone like him, yet unlike him. I had a long finned BN on order (not albino), but it was taking forever to get him in.

I was at the LFS tonight and discussed this with one of my favorite employees there. We wound up picking out three ottos for my twenty gallon long, with plans for me to pick up another three in a week or so. This is turning out to be the tank with schools of six... black neons, betta girls, ottos... and the odd five cories.

A few questions before I post pictures for you.

Daffy's been gone for a while now, so there should be some algae for the lil guys. In fact, one of my decorations has a nice carpet of fuzzy green algae (I actually rather like this algae...), will they eat that? I don't scrub down the sides or back glass, either, so there should be some algae for them there.

I'll be extending the lighting hours again (I reduced them after Daffy, as I had no one to eat the algae) so they should have a decent crop in a bit. I'll also start up a couple Pet Rocks (TM... who DID coin that term, anyway? Credit where it's due and all). Daffy liked zucchini and cucumbers... I assume ottos will too? It's been a while since I've read that otto article... *goes searching*

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Six should be good, right? The betta girls are already checking the ottos out and they seem okay with that. They've never harmed the cories (and in fact, have gotten into the midst of cory piles before...) and don't even pay attention to the black neons. Anyway, how long should I let these guys settle in before going back to get the other half of their school? I had no problem taking all six at the same time, but Art (the LFS guy) suggested just taking half. *shrugs*

Now pictures!

A bit hard to pick out (he certainly found a place that camoflages him!), but he's right above the cories' heads.

Otto two hiding by the crinum which obviously needs a dead leaf removed


Otto three just got investigated by the bettas and scurried off to this corner:


This is number three, before being investigated by curious betta girls... I saw him on the glass there and was like... "Look! It's a mini Daffy!" *sniff* Daffy used to slurp over the front glass right where this guy was. Made me smile to see someone enjoying himself like my silly BN did. Do excuse the flash reflection on his lil tummy.
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~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I've got 7. And they are SUCH fun.

Every now and again, I pop in a fresh "Otocinclus Pet Rock" covered in bits of green fur. Within about 40 seconds, they're all on it hoovering away!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Yeah, I've noticed that while I can almost always find one or two, I rarely see all three at the same time. The exceptions to that were when I first put them in and once since then when all three showed up at once.

What I find amusing is sometimes the ottos will school across the tank with the black neons and then drift off to slurp on the glass or a convenient ornament. It's quite cute, especially because they look so similar to the neons if you just glance over. It almost looks like a neon decided to attach to the glass if you aren't paying attention.

I can't wait to get the rest of them... they're so cute that I'd love to see more of the lil guys. They've already cleaned the front glass where I missed the brown algae near the gravel. Algae wafers disappear overnight and I think they may be snacking on the veggie wafers I throw in for the cories, too. I'll have to make a note to have mom make zucchini for dinner one night so I can steal a slice for them. I hope they'll enjoy that as much as Daffy did.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

He probably suggested getting half of them at a time to avoid a mini-cycle. I'd get the other half of them in a few days or a week.

I really like my 6 ottos...they eat almost all of the algae in my 29g except for the beard algae, that's for my Hillstream Loach.

Ottos are really skittish if there aren't very many of them, so they'll probably stay in the corners or under your driftwood until you get the other 3.

After you get the rest of the school, don't be surprised if you find your ottos joining the cory piles too...especially during feeding time

I used to have a swardie that thought he was a cory...he constantly schooled with my cories and would immitate them

Thanks... from both me and the ottos!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Good luck to you and your ottos!

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Well, I've seen these guys hanging around at my LFS for a few weeks, so I hope that they'll tough it out. My tank surely has more algae than there tanks do, plus it's got driftwood and I can supply all sorts of nummy treats. Hopefully they'll do well!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Nice ottos! Sometime after my move I may get some as algae eaters. The thing is, I don't know if they'll last long, as I've heard they're delicate.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."