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OK, here goes. Look below to see my tanks.
In the first two tanks, there seems to be a good amount of algae. But I don't really have room in these tanks for any more fish.
What I am thinking of doing is getting 3 Ottos. But, for the first week or two, I want to put the Ottos in my first tank. Then move them to my second tank, for another week or two. After that they will be placed in there permanent home, my third tank.
Does anyone think there could be problems with doing this? Any suggestions as to what else I could do?

my suggestion would be to make each tank a permanent home to a pair of ottos.
Another idea is put a hillstream loach in each tank. They dont get very big, and the 1 I put in my 10g completely cleaned the green mess in about a week, and keeps it spotless. Never mind what people say that hillstream loaches dont eat algae, my tank was green on all walls and the plants looked like they were wearing sweaters. That hillstream loach took care of every little bit of algae.
Heres a pic:
http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/beaufortia_kweichowensis.html

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You could get a 3 non-producing snails. 1 for each tank. They clean algae pretty good. I forgot which snail required a mate to reproduce. =P

But if you were to go with the ottos, it wouldnt be good for the fish to move them from tank to tank in such a short period of time. Might cause more stress for them then needed. Aren't they less hardy than most fish?

Apple snails are sexual reproducers if i remember correctly.

-- Gomer

You could try a small bristle nose pleco or an apple snail as suggested before. Apple snails dont asexually reproduce like mystery snails, and are pretty cool.

I would NOT put the otos through so much stress. They are very temperamental about their water.

I would go with the apple snails. Just return/trade them to the pet store when they get too big.

The snail idea is good. But I really don't want to buy something, knowing I will have to take it back. What are some common small snails that will eat the algae(brown)? And how quickly will they reproduce?


Could 2 Ottos fit in each of my tanks? Or just 1 Loach or Pleco?



[span class="edited"][Edited by T/A 2004-07-11 17:42][/span]

I think 2 ottos would be fine in each tank. As long as they have enough to eat im sure they will enjoy each others company. You could put just 1 BN pleco, or just 1 hillstream loach.
Let us know what you get and how it works out!!


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Live plants are actually your best option. The otto's can be tempermental about their water besides, like you said, your tanks are kind of full. While otto's don't produce as much waste as a pleco they still put out some waste. Live plants are nice and cheap, and most grow like weeds such as the Anacharis and Cabomba, two of my favorites. The plants will absorb the nitrates which will cut off the algae's supply and gradually knock it out. If you add a Golden Apple Snail, it will help, but my experience with them is they don't help a tremendous amount, not like an Otto or a good old fashioned algae scrubber. Oh and I had a recent discussion with one of my customers about this. Yes plants also put off waste however the good they do far outweigh's the bad. For example if the plant put's out two drops of waste they absorb fifteen drops of waste. That's by no means scientific but it's an example LOL. Also what kind of substrate do you have on the bottom? The smaller the substate the better, sand if possible is the best. If food can't get between the substrate and decay you won't have as much waste breaking down into nitrates. With sand most if not all fish poop and food will rest on the top, the extra food will be eaten and the poop will be shuffled towards the filter by the bottom feeders. This method won't work with undergravel filtrs but don't get me started on those sigh. Good luck!

I'm going to wait a couple more weeks before getting any more fish. So, I have time to think about which option to go with.

Skittles, I have sand in all my tanks. And with at least weekly sand vacs, I rarely see much accumulation of dirt. I tried live plants before, and didn't really enjoy them. Plus, I don't use aquarium lighting, so the plants wouldn't survive.

Hornwort would survive

It's cheap, grows like a weed, is a nitrAte sponge, and doesn't need good lighting...it does better with some light, but it does just fine without it...

Yes, plants will compete with algae for nutrients. Keep some plants if at all possible and keep up with water changes. You may have to manually scrape some algae off, but if you do the above it will have a hard time growing back. If you add to the fish population, you may still have algae problems because the algae will still have plenty of nutrients.

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