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Okay, so I have these two ottos who were in my planted 10 gallon tank. Algae was abundant, heavy planted, all that. But recently (2 or so months ago actually), some of my corydoras have been dieing, and as I looked closer in the substrate of my tank, I see these red, tubiflex like worms EVERYWHERE. I don't know how I missed these worms, but I think they may have been the cause of my cories deaths.

Anyhow, I got a 20 gallon a week ago, set it up with java moss and bogwood from my 10 gallon (bleached to get rid of the brush algae, wanted it to look nice in 20gallon).

I acclimitized my ottos and corydoras in their yesterday, and I this morning when I'm looking at them, both my ottos seem to be swimming around together all over the front glass, with their occasional stops to 'suck' on the glass. Now, at first I was thinking it must be because their so happy in their new tank. Then while thinking about it, I forgot that my tank had no algae in it at all, doh .

So, now I don't know what to do. The 20 gallon will not be a lighted tank unfortunately, unlike my 10 gallon was, so I'm not sure if algae will grow on it at all. However, I know for a fact, that both my ottos eat shrimp pellets that I feed my cory. I see them everyday eating the shrimp pellets off the substrate with my cories, even with the algae abundance in the tank. Now my question is, will the ottos need the algae, or will the shrimp pellets be enough?
My 20 gallon is low tech, has no canopy, so no lights, so it won't be able to hold any plants other than the java moss. I don't know if algae will grow in the tank any time soon, or at all. My 10 gallon planted is a complete wreck now, I need to completely dismantle it and everything, and I don't see myself using it anytime soon.

I've thought about sitting out a piece of bogwood (with water) out in the sun and letting it grow some algae for a couple of days, but this seems like a temporary solution. Help please?

First of all, Hikari wafers or equivalent will act as a stop gap while you provide an algae supply.

Second, letting things become covered in algae in jars is the technique I took to calling the "Otocinclus Pet Rock™ Method" some time ago. What you do is collect several small objects, let them sit in the daylight in water, and arrange them so that they are harvested cyclically. When the Otocinclus have munched all the algae off one item, pop it back in the jar on the windowsill and replace it with another object from the collection. Anything that is aquarum safe can be used - bogwood bits, stones, plastic aquarium ornaments - in fact I can't think of a better use for some horrible garish plastic ornaments than to let them become covered in green fur as a banquetting table for your Otocinclus !!!

Someone else posted another suggestion a little while ago. Cut some perspex sheet into squares about 2 inches by 2 inches, let 3 or 4 of them float in the aquarium, then when they're covered in green fur, weigh them down so that the Otocinclus can have a good time hoovering them clean again. Basically any clear plastic that won't leach substances into the water will do fine. If the plastic is labelled "food safe" (as in safe to keep in contact with human food) then this is a cast iron guarantee that it's safe to use with fish - you don't think the authorities would let a plastic be licenced for food use if it leached carcinogens into your food, do you?

The fun part about algae is that you can cultivate it in industrial quantities when you DON'T want it! However, this also means it's easy to cultivate when you do - every time you do a water change, use the old water from the aquarium to fuel your algae cultures (all those nice nitrates and phosphates will soon give your rocks and bogwood a nice lush coating of prime Otocinclus salad). Plus, if you ever decide to try cultivating live Daphnia for fish feeding purposes, best food for them is the unicelluar green algae that are responsible for 'green water' when the aquarium water contains excess nutrients. Cultivating that stuff is easy - bright light and LOTS of excess nitrates and phosphates in the water, along with some organic matter (e.g., fish poo from a previous water change and gravel vac of your aquarium). Soon you'll have a nice green soup, which will keep your Daphnia fed quite happily too.

I suspect you could also cultivate a marive version of 'green water' for raising Brine Shrimp. Good way of reducing your feeding costs - farm your own fish food!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for the advice! I have tons of useless plastic/silk plants I can use looks like ill be sitting them out on the window and having a rotation. Thanks again

Just a quick noteworthy point;

"spirulina/algae" wafers are very densely packed with crude protein, often even moreso than most conventional carnivore pellets. They should not be viewed as the staple diet of primarily herbivorous fish such as otocinclus. A better option would be to cut off a hunk of squash, brush LIGHTLY with beaten egg whites, allow it to dry, and place it in the tank.

Ya, I've fed my ottos zuchinni before, but no one in our family eats the stuff or cucumbers, so I don't have any sitting in my house at the moment.

Never heard of putting egg whites on them though...Is that suppose to be a good source of protein for the fish?

The Hikari Wafers I use have a fair amount of other things apart from algae in them, including Krill - which explains why my Pandas adore them so much!

However, in my experience, Otocinclus that are accustomed to munching on them don't suffer any major problems - after all, one of my Otocinclus lived for over 9 years on the diet I adminstered, so you can take that as a recommendation!

One thing I would try if you can get them is fresh peas. Remove the shells around the fleshy parts, soften them a bit by cooking them, then administer to your Otocinclus and see if they eat them. Whatever you do, DON'T use tinned peas as these invariably have all manner of E-numbers added to them, which will NOT be good for your fishes, and probably aren't that good for you either! Fresh peas from the pod are the way to go if you use peas - the beauty being that they're a handy small size, and you can cut them in half and spread them around the tank to give your Otocinclus a chance to find them if they have to compete with any other veggie lovers in the aquarium. Peas are also pretty useful for feeding other vegetarian fishes such as Mollies and other livebearers that need vegetable matter in the diet, and of course vegetarian Barbs love them!

As for 'Squash', this is something I haven't encountered, unless it's an American name for something else that IS familiar here in the UK!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I've heard enough horror stories of far more omnivorous loricariids suffering massive bloating problems from so named "algae disks" to shy away from them (which is not to say I don't have a bag myself--hikari brand wafers appear to have less crude protein than many other brands).