Housing and feeding questions for Otocinclus catfish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
4,916
4
68
Monterey, CA
Hi,

So I got a total of 11 ottos now. I have 3 in a 10 gallon and 8 in a 20 long. I am planning on moving 4 to a 29 gallon that is covered heavily in brown algae. Anyway, I am looking at the 8 of them in the 20 gallon and they are really active and schooling together. It seems they are very happy.


So my question is how many is a good stock for a 20 and a 29 gallon? In the 20 gallon I am gonna add a pair of Ram cichlids too and wonder if there will be any problems. I don't want the tank to be considered overstocked. I want to stock these tanks a little on the lighter side. Well, atleast the 20 gallon. The 20 gallon has only a few plants but the 29 has moderate amount of plants.


Also in the 20 gallon and 10 gallon it's be stripped clean of algae so I need to supplement some other foods. What should I try? I got algae wafers and I can try some veggies. But what will work? Thanks
 
I'd say if you're gonna add the rams you probably won't want to add any more than the 8 you have now ( if anything remove a few-more on this later) Technically they are dwarf plecos and even though they are small, they still produce more waste than another 2" fish like a tetra. The 29 you could do 6-8 and be good. Generally the rule is 1-2 per 5-10 gallons. Plants help alot, even though they don't eat them. They appreciate high o2 levels and almost no nitrate, which is where the plants come in.

I have 4 in my 60 to help with algae control, and they won't touch algae wafers at all. Some have luck with them but mine won't go near them. They love cucumber and zucchini rings though. They absolutely love brown algae, so don't be surprised if your tank is CLEAN in a day or so. I ran my lights in the qt tank 24 hrs a day for about two weeks before I bought mine, and four stripped it of algae in two days.

It's a fine balance with ottos and some folks can never seem to keep them alive for very long since they really need algae to thrive. Live plants keep the nitrates low, but it also deprives the algae of it's primary food source as well. You may want to split up the 11 you have right now and not add any to make sure they don't starve. Then add light or subtract plants while you figure what yours like to eat besides algae. They also like low light tanks, which doesn't help grow algae either. That's the dilemma with them. Good luck!!
 
I am gonna keep 3 in the 10, 4 in the 20 and 4 in the 29 like I originally intended. I am gonna try some veggies and see how that goes. I know they are a schooling fish that's why I wanna keep them in groups of 3-4.


BTW, do you blanch your cucumbers? Do you remove the seeds?
 
I don't blanched any of my vegetables. Normally if they are frozen for a whole, it will sink once thawed in the water. You can also put it in the microwave for 5 seconds to make it sink.
 
I have 5 otto's in my 46g community, got them to deal with a bad outbreak of brown algae and they had it sparkling in 3 days. Since then I've tried algae wafers but they don't seem to interested. Last night I microwaved some 2"x1" pieces of zuchini and dropped one in the tank, they didn't touch it untill today, now they are on it 2 at a time and looking happy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom