How many ottos for a 55Gal tank

[Reindas]

Hi,

I got my 55g tank that I turned into a south american only tank. It has gravel and is the kind that will harm corys, so no corys for now.

right now is an all tetras tank. I wanted to add a pleco or two but I would need a species that stays small. So ottos are the winners.

I have 8 ember tetras, 5 tetra Pristella, 4 black phantom tetras and 7 Neons tetras. Also one nerite snail.

How many I can I safely add? Of course I’ll get after my quarantine.

Thanks you.

Take care!!

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Is it a planted tank?

cheers Darrel

[Reindas]

Hi,

Right now very few it has been reticulary difficult for me to keep plants alive in this tank. I have tried elodeas, anubias, java ferns, java moss. The only one that last for some time is the java moss. I was thinking of adding some duckweed. I only keep the lights on 6 hours but maybe there's still too much light.

Am I missing something?

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Right now very few it has been reticulary difficult for me to keep plants alive in this tank. I have tried elodeas, anubias, java ferns, java moss. The only one that last for some time is the java moss. I was thinking of adding some duckweed. I only keep the lights on 6 hours but maybe there's still too much light.

Am I missing something?

I only have planted tanks, but my understanding is that

Otocinclus

spp. are much more difficult to keep without plants.

In terms off the lack of success in growing plants, it is unlikely to be too much light or too long a light period.

cheers Darrel

[Lycosid]

I only have planted tanks, but my understanding is that

Otocinclus

spp. are much more difficult to keep without plants.

In terms off the lack of success in growing plants, it is unlikely to be too much light or too long a light period.

cheers Darrel

I've had good luck with otos in a heavily planted tank that also contains driftwood and oak leaves. Sometime back we had a conversation on this forum about this and it seems that many of us have better luck with otos in tanks with lots of this sort of organic material.

What substrate do you have in this tank? That can be key for plants. I've also found that stem plants tend to grow obnoxiously fast, so if you want a lot of plant growth fast they are good choices.

[Bas Pels]

Hi,

Right now very few it has been reticulary difficult for me to keep plants alive in this tank. I have tried elodeas, anubias, java ferns, java moss. The only one that last for some time is the java moss. I was thinking of adding some duckweed. I only keep the lights on 6 hours but maybe there's still too much light.

Am I missing something?

Lights on for 6 hours is far too short, that should be 10 hours or more.

Perhaps you should try with the most easy plants. Hygrophylum polysperma, Vallisneria spiralis forma spiralis, Sagittaria subulata, Ceratophyllum, that kind of plants

you will need some 3 cm or just over an inch of sand. This ought to be sand from a groove, of a river or so. NOT for a filter, and not somehow chemically prepared.

Hygrophylum and Ceratophyllum can be put into the sand - even if you put these plants upside down, they il lstill grow, I tried this once. Vallissneria is best plantend with the roots in the sand, and the rest above. But, if you plant it too deep, it will grow out of the sand.

Plant them some 5 cm/2 inches apart - this will look not very nice, but gives the plants maximum light. Topping can be don when the top reaches the surface.

You will NOT need to add CO2, the fishes will do so, and before you add fishe,s the water will contain 5 mg of ths stuff. This comes from the air, and water movement will help to keep this value.

lighting is best done for 12 hours, with 1 watt, or more, a square decimeter. That would be 9 watts or more a square foot. The plants I mentioned all grow in low light conditions, but your Otocinclus would prefer to find algae on the plants.

I once decorated a tank with plants on the left hand side, and rocks on the right hand side. The Otocinclus never ventured amongst the rocks. I would consider them in the group of fishes most needing plants.

I have plants in all my tanks - except the two in which herbifores swim

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Thats it, what @Bas Pels (and @Lycosid) say.

I'd definitely have "Structural leaf litter" as well as plants. Have a look at <"Natural habitat..... ">.

cheers Darrel

[Reindas]

Hi,

I seams I have a lot of work to do on this tank. Is ok, because now I'm confined to home but as soon as I can get out I'll some plants.

Thanks!

[Linus_Cello]

Different but related question. So does a quarantine tank for ottos also need to be heavily planted? Could it just be filled with floating plants like guppy grass, cabomba, etc?

[Bas Pels]

The problem with Otocinclus is, they eat constantly. Until collected, and then they don't eat for a long, long while. Most often until they arrive in the aquarium of their buyer.

Quite often, they develop a lethal condition from this starvaton. In other words, bought Otocinclus need to be fed as soon as possible.

In your case I wonder why you would bother with a quarantaine tank - their tak is empty, so you could do all needed quarantine in this tank. After the q period, you can just add eventual other fishes.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

So does a quarantine tank for ottos also need to be heavily planted? Could it just be filled with floating plants like guppy grass, cabomba, etc

I would have plants, they like broad leaves to rest on so a potted Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri) would help.@Apistomaster used this approach with Discus etc. and he is a pretty good reference.

The problem with Otocinclus is, they eat constantly....

I agree, I think the secret is to get them eating as soon as possible. I've found they like resting on vertical stems, of similar width to the fish, so I put slices of cucumber or Zucchini on vertical bamboo cane and I hope they will find and start eating from them, they may need the vegetable to be in the tank for ~48 hours and to really soften before they'll eat it.

Once they've started on these you can add in Capsicum (Red Bell Pepper) etc.

In your case I wonder why you would bother with a quarantine tank - their tak is empty, so you could do all needed quarantine in this tank. After the q period, you can just add eventual other fishes.

I'm the same. Although I quarantine any new fish, I don't have a separate bare tank.

I store spare sponges (you should always have spare, wet sponges), plant cuttings, bits of wood, spare moss & floating plants etc. in the quarantine tank, and I treat it like the other tanks, it is just that the tank doesn't have any permanent residents. I don't like bare bottom tanks, so there is a shallow layer of sand (or moler clay cat litter).

When I buy new fish, have a fish I want to isolate, have unexpected fry etc. I put them in the tank. New fish stay there for six weeks, by which time I should be pretty sure that they don't have any internal parasites etc.

My rationale is that I wouldn't keep a fish I already tended for in a bare tank, so why would I put a new, stressed fish in a bare tank with no plants or overhead cover etc just so I could keep an eye on it? I want to give it the best chance, and the best chance is in a fully established tank with plenty of live food etc.

This is my quarantine tank, when I was quarantining some Splash "Tetra" (

Copella arnoldi

) they actually spawned, and these were some of the resulting fry (apologies for the picture quality).



cheers Darrel

[Reindas]

I have ottos on another smaller tank that is planted. On this tank plants grow well, don't know why. With those I learned the value of kale, zucchini and red peppers. After this quarantine I'll get to work on this and let you guys know. The pic is fine!