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So unfortunately, I regressed a little with this lastest batch. I made a rookie mistake but was a good learning experience to add more data. Being that the spawn was mid week, I didn't do a water change but instead just made sure the tank was topped off. I had a good hatch out and at day two, I was able to count over 40 wigglers. The next day, the numbers diminished greatly with just under (20) being visible and found a few wee ones on the substrate that had passed. I immediately suspected something wrong with the tank and did the water change then.

As of today, I'm still able to visibly count around (12) wigglers. The new guys were really actively grazing yesterday when I checked them. The juvies are still do really well and continue to grow nicely. They are just about ready to move over to the holding tank.

Lesson learned. Always so a fresh water change prior to hatching.

Will have to do some plant prunning in the tank this weekend as well.

Hey James,

thanks for sharing your mistake, so we can learn from it! At the moment it seems like my personal otocinclus project is pushed far back.. cause the new flat is out of sight and so is the space for new tanks. But of course this doesn't stop me from following your thread with big interest!

Question: How do you make short work of a planned tank maintenance day?
Answer: Walk in on a spawn in progress!

Soon as I walked into the fish room to grab some jugs to fill, I caught one of the male Otos swimming off. Closer look at the tank and found a bunch of eggs in the Bacopa area. I immediately grabbed up the jugs and left the room.

I'll have to check my notes, but I think this is the first time I've had (3) spawns this close together. Now...will go back to my normal deal of a water change before they hatch which will be tomorrow afternoon.

crazy! I wish more people would have half of your success in breeding Otos so there would be less wild catches in our tanks!

And we have a hatching today.

Went down last night and did the water change right before the lights went out. Came home today and was able to visibly count (19) new wigglers lounging around. Took my usual photos and will check them out when I get back from the gym. There was one shot I hope turned out. There was a fry guy from each of the three spawns right next to each other. Looked pretty kewl.

Count goes up today. Saw (23) new wigglers on the glass. Trying something a little different this time around. I went ahead and administered the first powder feeding a day early. Wondering if by chance this may help with getting better results. If anything, the others in the tank will have lots to graze on.

Got lucky as well with the water change. With all the rain we have had lately, our well water is turning to the brown side. I filled all the jugs up the other day so have plenty of good water to conduct all other WCs tomorrow as planned.

Now for the bad news. The "money" shot from yesterday was bad. Man I wished that would have turned out.

Hey James,

what a shame that the moneyshot didnt't work out! Maybe you get a second chance?

I wanted to write you on another Otocinclus subject. My Birthday is coming along soon and i want to use it in order to convince my wife to find some space for a second tank. The special thing about this one.. i want to built it myself (first time). What would you suggest as the perfect tank size for keeping a decent amount of otos? I thought of a long tank with normal width but not very high. (arround 100-160liters)

Greetz,
Philip

Hey Phil. With what you are looking for (100-160l), it will be a nice big tank. Will you be doing species only or throwing a few extra's in there?

Throw in a bunch of live plants and some wood, the Otos would be in paradise with that much play room.

Hey James,

yes the plan would be Otocinclus alsmost only.. i was thinking about O. Vittatus. I might transfer one female Ancistrus spec that i couldnt give up on when i sold my 300L tank.. after all she was my first fish and is now sitting in a community tank with Chlamydogobius Eremius which is suboptimal

I'm hoping that i can reuse some of my equipment from the 300L tank. I still have an Eheim 2073 and a huge mangrove root. Plus my Goby tank ist definately overstocked with plants.. as the natural habitat looks more stony i assume. ;)

Greets,
Philip

Hey James,

did I understand it correctly that you keep one spare tank running for the fry and get the parents out? I was thinking i could get a bigger tank and then instead of getting the fish out i would just insert a pvc wall with small holes so the fry can go wherever they want but the parents stay on one side. You think that could work?

Greets,
Philip

Edit: [s]Did you ever see your Otocinclus jumping or could i go for a coverless tank?[/s] found a dried out oto pic from jumping on the web.

When I first started, I attempted to used a secondary tank. I don't any more as I leave the fry in the main tank.

I've never know any Otos to be jumpers. All my tanks are open tops.

I'm thoroughly convinced now that my fishy friends have ESP.

Why you ask? Well simple....today I had planned to go in and trim the main breeder, do a good vac and replant the Sub wall. Guess what? Yep...a spawn in progress.

I'd really like to know how they do it? And it was random this time as I just this morning decided to do the work on the tank. Unlike before where I would pick a date. Too funny.

I didn't bother trying to count eggs yet since it's in progress. The Bacopa area seems to be the point of focus right now.

Your Otocinclus story is simply amazing!

I wonder: Do the otocinclus that you sell/give away also continue to reproduce in other tanks?

pel wrote:Your Otocinclus story is simply amazing!

I wonder: Do the otocinclus that you sell/give away also continue to reproduce in other tanks?

Thanks kindly.

I have received reports from (3) different buyers of spawns in their tanks. They are community tanks but haven't heard back as to whether or not any fry managed to survive. The most recent was from my last batch just a couple months ago.

Late check on things last night before lights out and all is well. I didn't stay too long so I didn't count eggs as yet. Just more of an observation at this point. I'm thinking this may have been a spawn from the young female in the tank. I found (1) egg on the front glass and (2) on the back. This is highly unusual which makes me believe it is the young one.

Another interesting note in regards to the plants. This will be another spawn where there are very minimal to no eggs located on the Acmella repens or Ludwigia atlantis. Very interesting and not sure why. That area of the tank was a the #2 egg area early on. It has become #3 now behind the Bacopa monnieri and Crypt jungle respectively. I think I will pull those two plants out and try to score some L. ovalis to replace them.

After this batch grows up, I will need to thin out the Crypts again and at that point I will replace (or put back in that is) the Sub wall. That's a big fry trap that's missing. I may just attempt to put it in today, but don't think I'll be able to squeeze the time in to do so.

Much bigger spawn than I thought. I managed to count (48) wigglers yesterday right before the lights went out. I would say a good 80% of them are in and around the Bacopa area and mostly all wee ones are on the glass. This is another unusual aspect for this batch. Now normally they all eventually migrate to the glass, but it usually takes some time. It's more common to find them staying on the plants for the first couple of days. Interesting.

Hey James,

interesting with information, though a pity that they never told you if the eggs/fry made it.

48 wigglers.. that's a good amount.. what was the maximum you ever had?

I'm planning to go a little bit over the top with the tank project but i still need to find out how much weight the floor can carry and what type of stand is most affordable. (120x65x70 or even 150x65x70... is what i am fantasizing about atm.. )

One question: How much waterflow do you have in your oto tanks?

Greetz,
Philip

Wasn't finding very many wee ones in the tank so I started questioning my food availability for them. I decided I needed to move some of the Green shrimp out of the tank. Might have turned out to be a good decision as there were a lot more in there than I thought. Pulled out a good 30+ small ones out of there. Might shoot for more today or tomorrow to be safe.

As I was rumaging through the plants, I would stir up the Oto fry and the good news is that there are still good numbers alive in there. Was funny watching them swarm out of the crypts as I used a bamboo skewer to help flush out the shrimp.

Mixed up the first batch of powder feed and fed accordingly. Gave the big areas a nice coating.

pel wrote:48 wigglers.. that's a good amount.. what was the maximum you ever had?
----

One question: How much waterflow do you have in your oto tanks?

I'll have to go back and look at my notes for the largest spawn size. As for the waterflow, I just use standard HOBs on the tanks.

Time for some drastic action in the main breeder. Algae has really set in. I've always had a little bit of BBA but it has not really bothered me. Now, hair algae has set in and grow rampant. I had to take action even with the wee ones in the tank. I'm pulling out all the plants and getting rid of the most infected leaves. The hard plant will be the Littorella uniflora. Will have to very carefully rub it off so as to not damage the plant.

I just removed all the crypts and I found all the wee ones. Counted just over (20). Yay! Good batch even though still not 50%. Real test will be to see how they do with this tank maintenance. It's gonna be a big hit. Will also be gravel vac'ing to get the TDS down as well. I will also need to scrape the glass for the BBA but will leave the back alone for now. Will just have to provide plenty of powder food for now until things can build back up.

Pulling even more shrimp out as well. That will lighten the load of this tank considerably. Two ladies are ready to pop so need to get things back in order for them.

Man did I stir up a hornet's nest.

All the plants are now out of the tank. There are Oto's and shrimp swimming all over the place. It's real funny to watch as an adult shrimp will settle somewhere and out of the blue a baby Oto will swim right into it. Sometimes even landing on the shrimp. It only lasts for just about a second but pretty funny to see an Oto on a shrimp. I snapped a couple of blurry pics but might post them anyway.

The wee Otos are just litterally working over every inch of the tank. The substrate looks like someone kicked over an ant hill.

Have all the plants cleaned and ready to go back in. Now just have to wait to vac out more of the substrate. Long process but hopefully be back to normall in a few hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3oW-OQ9XeQ[/youtube]

wow.. couldn't believe it! I also found you on yt James

Looking forward to get those blurry pictures!

wow.. couldn't believe it! I also found you on yt James

Looking forward to get those blurry pictures!

Working in the zebra tank this weekend. Time for another big swing at it.

Cleared out the tank of all plants and driftwood to clean them up. Removed a ton of snails. Still have a few more to get this morning as I spied when the lights came on but nothing major. Found some egg sacks on the glass to remove as well.

As for shrimp, I have relocated the C. thams. I also have a small Tangerine Tiger project in this tank as well. My TT's threw a couple of white/clear tigers with orange eyes. I've seperated all them and put them in this tank. So there are a total of (6) of these shrimp in this tank now.

Today I will do some more gravel vac'ing and washing off the plants to put back in. I'm in the market for some small flat(ish) driftwood as well to build a ledge.

Hey James,

tank is ordered now!

The setup is going to be:
120x60x60 430L tank with glass cover
2x30W HiPower LED beams (probably 4hrs 1 beam and 4hrs 2 beams)
2073 Eheim filter (official recommendation by Eheim is up to 350L)
300W Jäger heater

Besides my old ancistrus lady the only other fish are going to be otocinclus (probably vittatus which are easy to get)! How many would you recommend for this tank size? 20-30? I plan to let the tank run for a month or two in order to have a bit of algae growth going. You think this will be long enough if i also take care to have enough spirulina and zucchini prepared?

Greetz!
Philip

Hey James!

the tank is there and temporarily set up (we move again in October).. but since i have to leave the country for 3-4 months i decided to put the fish from my much smaller tank in there so it will be easier for my wife to take care of them in my absence.
Because of the moving i decided to not fill it with sand/gravel and just put pots in for the plants.
Here are some pix..
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yr4vhapwr2ir3gf/0p3L7PCOf3#/

Sorry that it's still offtopic.. I really hope that the otos can soon move in. (October 2013)