Otocinclus killer

[Ozcattie]

So it appears i'm an Otocinclus killer....
I have no diseases in the tank, nobody else has an issue. My blue rams are healthy so i'm pretty positive nothiing is wrong with the tank, but I keep losing Oto's?? I even had a friend who works in a LFS here today when another body floated & he agreed, healthy, no marks, not hungry & not bloated in anyway. The only explanation that either of us can come to is temperature... currently sitting at 32 degrees celsius (the world is 33+ here this week)
So why am i the worst kinda scum???

[Firestorming]

Mate, further readings are required. Give us all the stats on your tank, also how long has it been set up and what other tank mates do the ottos's have?

[littlebristlenose]

Most ottos are better around 25-26 a few tolerate high 20's i dont think 30 plus is good,i may stand corrected as otto knowledge isn't studied as much as other more high profile catfish.

[racoll]

Indeed, in my experience they do better on the warm side (25-28C), but 32C might be a little excessive.

Lack of food, wrong food, or poor quality livestock can also be to blame.

How long had you had them for?

[Ozcattie]

All other readings are normal (except for weekly fluctuations) i.e nitrate's maybe reaching 0.5ppm & nitrite's reaching 0.25 before weekly clean. I try to keep my PH at 6.6. They weren't hungry, none of them died with a depression in the tummy or anything... They all looked fine.
I had had the longest for 6 weeks.
I had kribensis in my tank before I blame them for the loss of 2- so i sold the kribs
Tankmates are;
Golden barbs- they don't attack anything (& they like it cooler)
M & F Blue rams & a pleco who thought they were baby pleco's, so loved them.
Food competition is VERY HIGH in that tank, but they weren't starving. Blood worms alternating with algae flakes.
Temperature is really hard atm. Sydney is 25 degrees at 3 in the morning & 40 during the day so ice only goes SO far, you know
Oh & I am very happy with anything I get from my LFS, so i don't suspect bad stock, they actually had them for a month while I arranged re-tanking my featherfin....

[Shane]

Food competition is VERY HIGH

This is really the issue. Unless they are in a huge tank that receives lots of light there will never be enough food growing naturally in the tank to keep them alive. They also compete very poorly for food against larger (larger from an Oto's perspective) fishes. If you really want Otos set them up either in a species tank or with some small top/mid-water schooling fishes.
-Shane

[Mike_Noren]

Food competition is VERY HIGH in that tank, but they weren't starving.

I agree wish Shane. Starvation is the probably most common cause of death for otos, and food competition the most common cause for starvation. Otos are very poor at competing for food.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Blood worms alternating with algae flakes" & "I agree wish Shane. Starvation is the probably most common cause of death for otos, and food competition the most common cause for starvation. Otos are very poor at competing for food."

I agree as well, they often won't eat flake, and they are very poor competitors. I think because they are cheap to buy people think they are easy to keep, but they aren't.

If you can get some more from a shop where they both, look after the water quality and feed them a vegetable supplement then you stand some chance. I always have a slice of cucumber or courgette (Zucchini) in the tank with mine, if you fasten it onto a vertical bamboo cane with an elastic band, the fish will rest on the cane and as the cucumber softens they will eat it. I studded mine with algal wafers, and some of the Otos will now eat both wafers and Astax crumb as well, some won't and as they have got older they have all become exclusively nocturnal. If you can't get them to eat vegetables things are very difficult, as they are picky algal eaters and really only like diatoms.

cheers Darrel

[Ozcattie]

Diatoms????

Ok, so as I got the replacements(which in Sydney are a mid/high priced fish- TY) imported from Chermany , yesterday. I thought about the amount of excessive algal growth I get in one tank & did a major op
:animals-chickencatch:
(sorry just found all those & HAD to use them) & took my sterbia out of one tank & put the Oto's into the tank I have black algae growth all over (lazy bristlenose doesn't like eating that).
So now they will be sharing with just a handful of tetra's & 1 cranky little bristlenose who's easy to get around, just have to feed him over here & he leaves everyone else alone...
So hopefully this lot should be smooth sailing :auto-camptrailer:

My little bristlenose got stuck on a piece of stocking I had covering a fry container, near the top of the tank, at one stage. I had to rescue him & physically pull the stocking off his barbs, which of course he'd spent the whole night entangling himself in the stocking & twisting, twisting. And I have never seen him go higher than half way up the tank since..... I traumatized him for life, hence my algae problem in that tank, plus he just doesn't seem to like the food you get when you clean, as opposed to food dropped in by a hand....

[dw1305]

Hi all,

black algae growth all over

They won't eat this, in fact very few fish will, it is actually a fresh water Red algae (Rhodophyta). Even though we call it all "algae" you are actually talking about a range of organisms that are as different from one another as is possible to be.

Otocinclus are specialist periphyton or "aufwuchs" eaters. This is the fine algal fuzz of green algae (Chlorophyta) with its inter-meshed diatoms, rotifers, copepods etc that covers all lit surfaces in natural fresh water. From my experience they mainly feed from the broad flat surface of leaves like those of Amazon Swords (Echinodorus spp.) and the more plants you have the happier they seem to be.

They like to rest low down in the crown of the plant, on bog wood or particularly on a twig or stems that are very slight greater in diameter than the fish, I think this is why bamboo canes are effective as food holders.

cheers Darrel

[Ozcattie]

Ok so my algae appears to be Black brush/beard Algae - the same as rhodophyta???
And it appears I should continue with hand removal of that.

I researched diatoms & periphytons. It appears I have a healthy growth on some of my plants, hints for further growth???

I have from this zucchini as a food source, great. But anymore suggestions??

[MatsP]

Yes, Black Beard Algae is a form of Rhodophyta (there are 5-6000 different forms in this group)

--
Mats

[grokefish]

I have great succes with ottos in a big tank full of big fish, just to throw a spanner in the works..........