PlanetCatfish.com

I'm having another go at breeding Otocinclus flexilis, and I'm looking for some suitable tankmates.

Now, in nature flexilis hangs out with Corydoras paleatus, so that would be the natural choice, but I'm told paleatus is likely to eat flexilis' eggs & young.

So my questions are:
1) Is paleatus an egg-eater? When breeding paleatus, do they tend to eat their own eggs?

2) Can anyone recommend another Cory that's very easy to breed, safe with eggs, and, if possible, likes cool temperatures?
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Have you had success breeding otos before?

I'm not too sure what type mine are, but I have bred and raised oto fry before. I have them in our community tank with sterbai and panda cories as well as some tetras, angels, red whiptails and L260's. Once I found them spawning, I removed the leaf with the eggs and placed them in a net in my fry tank. I found that the adult otos ate the eggs as well as the fish.

Nope, this is the only one I've had a serious go at spawning.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to ask: were your corydoras breeding at the same time as the otos?


The small, tropical, species of oto (O. vittatus, O. macrospilus mainly) occasionally breed in aquaria, although it's rare. Presumably these can be triggered through standard season simulation, like other catfish from the same general area.

O. flexilis is a larger, subtropical, species, and it has AFAIK never been bred in captivity*. I tried season simulation/water changes with O. flexilis, without success.

If you want you can probably identify your oto here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ge ... enus_id=49
Breeding reports of Otocinclus are rare enough that any info you have on how you got yours to breed are interesting.


* In some books it is said that O. flexilis is easy to breed, but that's due to a confusion with Hisonotus leucofrenatus.

Sorry Mike, I forgot to add that my panda cories had started spawning 10 days before.

I've looked at all the pics, but they all seem so similar. It's quite hard to make an accurate id.

Hope you don't mind me posting a pic, maybe you could help me id them.

[img]
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e12/c ... ure377.jpg

I'll post a separate thread about my otos spawning, hopefully you can get something from it to help you.

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Carmencatfish wrote:Hope you don't mind me posting a pic, maybe you could help me id them.

[img]
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e12/c ... ure377.jpg

Hmmm... It's indeed one of the small, tropical, ones. I can't say for sure which species, but it's of the vittatus group. Playing the odds, it's probably an O. vittatus (as that species is by far the most common of the group).

Yes, any details you can give about breeding them would be most welcome!

Wow, I've just realized which type you have. When I originally bought my 5, one of those was in the bag. No one noticed till I looked at the pic I took of them in the bag. Mine is definately a female, and a bit bigger than the other otos. They are gorgeous.
Looking at the pattern of my otos tails, I'm leaning towards O. mariae, but can't be 100% sure.

Thanks, and I'll start my breeding thread once I have more time.

My 2 cents is that in a communal setup of 10 Corydoras paleatus breeding will eat their own eggs with a few escaping to grow up along with their parents. They are always hungry and apparently caviear suits them just fine.
Larry

I have not had egg eating problems with two dwarf Cory's, habrosus and pygmeus.
Larry

i have had success with c. habrosus, c. axelrodi, c. pygmaeus, c. metae, c. burgessi and C121 not eating their eggs