Anyone With Oto Experience

I've currently got 3 amano shrimp and 3 otos cruising around my 120 gallon tank. I'd love to get 3 more otos to round out their numbers, but I will be needing to move then soon.

I've got 3 blood parrots in the 120 gallon that are reaching maturity and looking at these little guys like snacks.

I've got a 29 gallon running currently that is stocked with my kuhlI loaches (these were also beginning to be considered snacks), skirt tetras, and 2 ghost shrimp. My question is will this 29 gallon tank be able to provide enough food for my 3 otos on top of the 3 amano and 2 ghost shrimp?

The amano and ghost readily eat algae wafers and regular fish food so I'm not worried about them, just worried that they will also eat anything in the tank the otos eat. For the otos I will continue to feed them zucchini, but other than that all they eat is what the tank produces. I am holding off for as long as I can to move them so the tank has time to age. It's fully cycled, but has only been running about a month.

 

How many kuhlI loaches?

 

8. I'm not concerned on the stocking of the tank. I'm comfortable with that, just asking about the food availability to the otos

 

Well, they should have the majority of the bio film to themselves just because the shrimp can't reach all the way up the tank at all, so I'd say go for it

 

Yeah I had one for a couple of years with just algea

 

Have you tried feeding your Otos with algae wafers?
Is your tank heavily planted with enough algae for them to eat?

Here is a good website about Otos. Check under the Diet:



Take note that Blood Parrots are very aggressive fish and Ghost Shrimps can/may kill your Otos.
In the past, one of my Ghost Shrimp caught and ate one of my Rummy Nose Tetra.

I find that Otos are quite delicate and not easy to keep.

 

Have you tried feeding your Otos with algae wafers?
Is your tank heavily planted with enough algae for them to eat?

Here is a good website about Otos. Check under the Diet:



Take note that Blood Parrots are very aggressive fish and Ghost Shrimps can/may kill your Otos.
In the past, one of my Ghost Shrimp caught and ate one of my Rummy Nose Tetra.

I find that Otos are quite delicate and not easy to keep.

That's because whisker shrimp are often sold as ghost shrimp since they look almost identical. A true ghost shrimp though is not aggressive at all

 

I think a 29 gallon could support six otos (plus five shrimp) if it was planted, especially if you supplemented with algae wafers and veggies until the tank matured. I'd continue to supplement their diet anyway to be safe.

I'm in a similar predicament with a tank maybe not having enough biofilm/aufwuchs for otos - I have 1 adult and at least a dozen juvenile otos in a 10g. A temp holding tank unexpectedly turned into an oto breeding tank so I'm stuck for now. I keep it very heavily planted and am dosing Bacter Ae daily in hopes that it boosts their food availability. You might look into the powder to see if you think it'll help expedite your tank's growth.

In summary yes, I think you could make it work if you were proactive about cultivating and supplementing their food.