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Hello all,

My ottos used to come out more often, and suck on the front glass also. Now anytime I get near the tank they all hide and run around like they are on a sugar rush. Well, nothing much has changed, I am going to buy some more to make a grand total of 5 or 6. My tank is 10 gallons, with 1 molly, 1 molly fry, a black skirt, and my newest friend citizen snips, a blue asian shirmp about 2.5 inches long. The ottos are well fed, om Hikari singing pellets and green algea. They used to be very friendly, and be right in your face. Any thoughts,suggestion questions?

Thank you

Mine seem to do the same thing every now and then they do the hiding thing at one stage I thought I lost them all. They seem to hide after I have done any alterations in the tank.

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Keith

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Otocinclus are droll little fishes, and usually go about their business with a studied nonchalance. However, if yours are suddenly darting away from the front when they didn't previously, it's just possible that they've cleaned the front glass to the point where they can see all those big shadows flitting past the aquarium from outside, and, being small fishes, adopt the safest tactic in the circumstances, namely go into hiding just in case the shadows belong to something predatory.

Mine will flee into the plant thickets if I move suddenly in front of the aquarium. However, if I drop food in, they son come back out again, especially if I drop in algae tablets or dangle some freeze dried Tubifex on a weighted string (which is how they like me to do it!).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for teh replys .right now I can only find one otto! I am buy gonna buy 3 more, I had bout 4 at one time, but now they are dissaperaing with out a trace. None of the fish I have in the aquarium is capable of taking out one of his friends. One odd thing is there is not alot of of algea any where on the tank. I had a accident with my aquarium light where it broke.Theres not that much algea anywhere on the tank, theres a lil spot on the front there not going for.Also my otto is unushaully fat.I don't think he has any eating disorders, thank you.

Another issue to consider - do you have an internal canister filter with a fairly wide bore intake, or an external canister filter with suitably wide-bore tubing?

Otocinclus have been known to swim into tubing if the tubing isn't protected against such activity by a mesh cover. in my case, to prevent accidents when I service the powerhead on my undergravel filter, I cap the filter uplift tube so that the Otocinclus aren't tempted to swim down it. The reason being that I've known this happen, and the resulting 'fish in a blender' epsiode isn't pretty.

If your filter tubes or intakes don't have protective covers (and if they're a decent make, they should have), then you can make DIY versions from an old aquarium medium-mesh net (mesh size around 1mm or so). Make sure it's a rot-proof net otherwise your work will be in vain! You can, in addition,cut small pieces of plastic piping as holders for the DIY covers to mate with the tubing if you're fitting them to an external filter, or you can cut squares of perspex to sandwich the netting for use with Fluval-type internal canister filters.

The only thing to remember with Fluvals or other internal canister filters is that you need to make the covers removable. Which usually involves some work with a drill, and some plastic screws (such as the ones you can get for fixing fluorescent tube clips to the top of your hood). Then, when the time comes for a replacement, it's a quick swap operation, apart from the time needed to drill a couple of holes in the replacement.

WHOOPS - ALMOST FORGOT - some canister filters have an intake that's protected from fish ingestion by a plastig grille consisting of vertical bars. However, while these are fine for keeping adult-sized fishes from being sucked into the filter, they're not so good if you're using a filter of this kind in a nursery aquarium full of fry. So the DIY approach given above will help make the filter safe for fry too.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

How about the asain shrimp? Don't know anything about them but perhaps that is responsible, does it have claws?