armadillo

Hi all. My otos were doing something really weird the other day. One was smelling the other's bum (like dogs, or mollies!), then the smeller kind of wrapped his body around the smellee. They repeated that a few times. Do you reckon they were mating?

Oh, and how do I know if they've juveniles or adults?

Radcliffe

I think that wrap around is a sign of mating yes!

(not sure on the rest though)

--R

COBettaCouple

i'm not sure how to tell juvies other than size maybe but i don't think they breed easily in captivity so that's pretty cool if yours have. any sign of eggs anywhere in the tank?

armadillo

That would be sooo cool!

Didn't look for eggs. What would they look like? Like a huuuge pile do you think, or something way more discrete?

I've had literally 5 mins. of fish time this week. ****ed work! I had to travel for pretty much the whole week.

COBettaCouple

i'm not sure on the oto eggs.. they could be all over or stuck together like a blob of caviar.. just check for small, tiny, tiny little round eggs - possibly white.

Carillon

This is an excellent link about Otos breeding. Apparently their mating and breeding habits are very similar to Corydoras catfish. Their eggs are scattered, and not in clumps.

0morrokh

That's pretty cool if they're mating. Keep an eye on them...they might do it again. Just keep in mind that other fish love to eat eggs.

armadillo

Wow. Thanks, Carillon. That picture of them mating is EXACTLY what they were doing. Cool!

armadillo

They've done it a couple of times. I don't think there's much I can do about the other fish eating the eggs. I guess que sera sera. Their tank mates are voracious molly fry who would eat their own flesh if that was an option.

COBettaCouple

maybe what you could do is setup a small tank for them.. let them do their thing and lay the eggs, then move them back to the other tank and you'd have fry soon enough.

0morrokh

That's what I'd do...set up the q tank with a sponge filter and some live plants to help the water quality, and stick in the Otos. I would email the guy who runs Otocinclus.com. He sort of keeps track of Otocinclus spawnings, and could probably give you some tips. Also it'd be great if you could get pics of them mating...currently there are not a whole lot of those around.

Radcliffe

My Ottos have been doing a mating like dance lately. I have been kinda hoping to see eggs, so that I could scoop them up and into a breeding net to have in that same tank. That might not work, but it is worth a try :-)

--R

armadillo

Alright, guys. You win. We're moving the molly fry over to the huge tank. Nice and roomy. They were getting too big for the 7G. So now the otos will be completely on their own. Oh, and thanks for the link, 0morrokh. I checked it out. I'm going to contact the guy.

COBettaCouple

cool.. i hope you'll be seeing oto eggs before long.

armadillo

They were at it again this morning. What is it with my fish and, like, constant mating

She's getting box-like in the middle so am entertaining no doubt that she's full of eggs.

Did a lot of reading on otos mating now, and it seems the male defends the eggs. How cool is that? Am guessing you're a little blase'd with that behaviour with your malachais, but I thought that was sooo cool.

It also seems that unless the tank is very mature and covered in algae, there's next to no chance of the fry making it beyond a week old. I could put the tank in direct sunlight, but that would defeat the point as I am having otos for the purpose of getting rid of algae! Also, it's a small tank, so they'd boil in no time. Apparently, they need live algae, not manufactured flakes.

COBettaCouple

lol.. well the mahachai were back to flirting before the fry were even a week old.

so you need to create a lot of algae in the tank for the fry... do you have any fluorescent bulb lamps? i've found that algae seems to grow fastest under FL light so maybe putting that tank under those lights would help encourage algae growth. and if you or a friend has any algae covered substrata in a tank, maybe you could scoop it into a cup and 'seed' the tank with algae? that's about all i can think of - i've not spent any time considering how to make algae before.

armadillo

Yeah I know, it's kind of my world upside down here: having to think of how to make algae! Honestly...

They are fluorescent light bulbs already, so I guess I can't improve from that. I am nervous of leaving the tank in direct sunlight what with the temperature. And they are otos, so they don't like the water too hot. Do you think it would work just behind the window, but with the curtains closed? Would that already be enough sunlight to promote dramatic algae growth?

COBettaCouple

do you know what temp your light is? you could try a higher bulb, like 10,000k to speed up growth perhaps.. or a 50/50 or full-specturm FL bulb to bring in more of a color spectrum, which should also help.

i think indirect sunlight would help some.. i just got an idea.. what if you took some gravel or better yet, a piece of decor like a cave, put it in a container filled with treated tap water and put that on a window sill? then when it's got algae growing on it, you could transfer it to the oto fry tank. (sort of another 'seeding' idea)

that, plus indirect sunlight and a FL bulb would give you 3 ways of you trying to promote algae growth.