Do baby otos feed on algae like the adults?

Well, apparently I was doing something right in my tank of danios and otos, because when I looked in today to say hi, I noticed a small but long black thing on my glass. upon closer inspection, I found out it's a fish. I've looked in my breeder's grass and found at least 3 of the little guys hanging out. I guess that means :;hb to them, eh? I don't want to move them to a breeder box until I know they are all hatched. on first count I only saw one, and now there are 3 so I'm gonna give it a day or two. My question is: do baby otos feed on algae like the adults? Or do I need to supplement their diet with something else? I have algae wafers I could grind up and put in the tank, or I could put a part of one in the breeder box when I put that in. Any suggestions?

 

I have no idea on what baby otos eat. Actually, I think you're pretty much a pioneer in this area (at least on Fishlore) since otos breed in captivity very rarely.
So congratulations on being one of the rare few to have baby otos in your tank.

 

Well.. I googled the subject and found this web page: if you would look at the "Breeding" part and read that it tells you what the fry eat/need. Hope I could help you sounds like fun to have more!

 

congrats on oto fry.. I bet they're real cute. I think they can feed off of algae wafers or soft veggie slices like adults.

 

Cool! I've had oto fry (and keep having it to the point that am worried about my female) last month. There's very little information out there on the subject. We can help each other out. Good that it's happening at the same time. Here's my story:

I have a heavily planted, well aerated tiny 5G tank that I used for molly fry, which got algae, so otos were suggested to me.
I got a couple and after a while, they started mating. A while later, we found eggs scattered in pairs or on their own around the tank. Most on the broad leaves.
A day or so later, squigglers came out. We count 4 on a regular basis, but they're very good at hiding.

Problems for you to anticipate:
1/ Feeding: apparently they don't eat algae pills or algae sheets, so...
- you'll need loads of brown/green algae. To do that, I've set up an algae farm outside in the garden for maximum sunlight: it's a small fishbowl in which I put small aquarium ornaments. I cover it with a transparent glass dish so no comes in from the outside and I put the algae-covered ornaments back in my oto tanks when they're ready. I do a rotation so there's always one ready. As you know, otos are supposed to be very susceptible to starvation as the bacteria in their belly would die off if they don't get regular food.

I also leave the lights in their tank on 10hrs/day (they have somewhere to hide in an ornament if they mind the light) to encourage algae growth in the tank (quite ironic, considering the reason why I got otos in that tank in the first place...).

- I also leave long slices of cucumber, flesh side up and firmly attached with plant clips so that it's a stable surface for them to suck on. I say long as that gives the bigger the surface, the higher the chance of the fry finding it. They tend to start liking cucumber (the adults at least) after about one day. Don't forget to thoroughly rinse cucumber before you put it in the tank what with pesticides and all. Also, don't leave it in the tank for more than 3 days or your nitrates might go up. 3 days is longer than what is recommended by most people, but I know that my female oto won't leave the cucumber from day 2, so I want her to get her fair share. I've barely seen the fry stop on it for one second so not sure if that's any good, but at least with a big one, you increase the chance of them finding that surface.

- I have fed them egg-layer fry powder for vegetarian fish although no idea if that's any good as I've never seen them eat it (not that I would as the stuff is tiny, so that could very well be what they're eating when they're seemingly randomly foraging away).

Apparently, one week is the critical stage and if your fry survives beyond that, it's a very good sign.

2/ Predation on the young/egg: nearly all other fish, even vegetarians, will eat your oto eggs and/or fry. I moved my molly fry to another tank when I saw the eggs. Now my otos are in there by themselves.

3/ Female exhaustion: My female now seems unable to stop having eggs, and am getting worried she might be exhausted. I have no idea what to do to stop it although it does seem to be trying to sabotage a good thing, but I don't want her to be hurt by it just because I had a bout of fish-keeper's pride.

I was wondering how come we are getting oto fry when everybody says it's so rare. I wrote to a guy who hosts an oto site (otocinclus) and he was very excited about it all. You might want to do that to, explaining you're on fishlore.com. He might give you some very good advice. I know he was very knowledgeable with me and that's alwasy a great help.

I was wondering, in my case, if it could be related to:
1/ The size of the tank and it being so small that the pheromone concentrations are up the roof.
2/ Lack of larger fish in the tank and makes them feel very safe
3/ Heavily planted tank
4/ The fact that I pour water back in after water changes with a watering can. Would rain trigger some mating response?

I'd be interested to know if you have any similar conditions in your tank?

Man! This is interesting! Kinda like biology class!

 

HI Dave, I know I keep ranting on about this but I am getting confused trying to locate posts.

This one (baby otos), in the otos section, is on the same subject as mine ('otos mating?'), in the breeding section.

Where do you think they both belong? Could you please move one to whichever of these two sections you feel is more relevant. I'd prefer otocynclus, but I know you'd prefer breeding, so breeding is OK. As long as they're both in the same section so it makes it easy for Muisicman and I to switch between the two.

Ta verrrry much! :;co

 

HI Dave, I know I keep ranting on about this but I am getting confused trying to locate posts.

This one (baby otos), in the otos section, is on the same subject as mine ('otos mating?'), in the breeding section.

Where do you think they both belong? Could you please move one to whichever of these two sections you feel is more relevant. I'd prefer otocynclus, but I know you'd prefer breeding, so breeding is OK. As long as they're both in the same section so it makes it easy for Muisicman and I to switch between the two.

Ta verrrry much! :;co

Musicman, check this article on otos. He makes a brief mention of fry food: .

 

Hmmm. well, I'm trying to figure out what has changed in my tank recently that may have caused this. It's my 10 gallon tank. I have 2 otos and some danios in it. What are they chances that I ended up with a male and a female oto, heh... it isn't incredibly planted. 4 silk plants, a large rock and a some breeder's grass cut into small sections (I put it in there for the looks, funny that I'm using it now.). I know there is plenty of algae in there, well, brown algae at least. My otos seem picky about that and won't touch the brown stuff... Going to replace a plant in there because of it... Anyways, I'm rambling. I don't know what type of tank conditions you have. I keep my nitrates fairly low, under 5-7ppm usually. pH is at about 8.2. That's how it comes out of the tap, sigh... Also the water is pretty hard here. The temp is always at ~78 F. Anyways, no sign of the fry yet today. they have been hiding in the grass alot, which is good. It has a good amount of algae on it, so I'm hoping that will feed them. What type of filter do you have in your fry tank? I worry about the fry being sucked up into my filter... Also, I don't know how to move the little guys. I have a breeder box I could put them in, but netting them is out of the question and I fear if I grab the grass they will fall out. Should I just leave the grass where it is? I mean, that is what it is meant for.

 

Aaaah, your pH is 8.2! Mine is 8.0, and oto books recommend at most 7.5. Could that be it? Could it be that in the spring, their water conditions change and become more alkaline?

My water's not very hard, to my great regret.

I keep the temp between 75.2 to 78.8. Well it was 78.8, then when I moved the molly fry because I saw the otos had mated, I changed it to 75.2.

Haven't measured my nitrates in ages. I do 25% at least water change at least 1x per week. More like 2x.

I don't have a lot of algae at all. Your otos won't eat the algae!? Reaaaally talk about ironic!

I checked my fish diaries and it took us about 3 days to see the fry. The eggs disappeared after one day.

Oh, don't forget to remove the white fully eggs. Apparently fish can get fungus if they eat them. They're 'bad' (i.e. unfertilized) eggs.

I wouldn't worry about the fry being sucked up into the filter unless you have this really really really powerful suction. For me it was no problem and there were even eggs really close to the intake. I hope you have the same thing (that the filter intake turns out to not be a problem). I do admittedly have this small filter as it's a small tank, perhaps that's why am not worried.

I really don't want to move the fry as oto adults themselves are extremely sensitive to change, so I figured the fry would be even more fragile. Woudl it be totally impossible for you to move the other fish? We were lucky in that this was a nursery tank for mollies, so we could easily re-house the molly fry to other tanks.

If I were you (but that is just my judgement, and I am really not knowledgeable at all on the subject. Am as experienced as you are on this), I wouldn't risk having that regret on my conscience (that you tried to move them and they didn't make it). If I was in that situation I'd let nature take its course (by letting them hide in the grass) or I'd try to move more robust fish out of there.

Funny your danios haven't eaten the egg or the fry. Have you considered moving the danios?

Oh do ramble away, I'd love to get to the bottom of why our otos are breeding and others' aren't.

What's breeder grass?

 

HI Dave, I know I keep ranting on about this but I am getting confused trying to locate posts.

This one (baby otos), in the otos section, is on the same subject as mine ('otos mating?'), in the breeding section.

Where do you think they both belong? Could you please move one to whichever of these two sections you feel is more relevant. I'd prefer otocynclus, but I know you'd prefer breeding, so breeding is OK. As long as they're both in the same section so it makes it easy for Muisicman and I to switch between the two.

Ta verrrry much! :;co

I think I'll be a rat and move this to the food section. jk.. I'll shoot this over to join your post. breeder grass could be called guppy grass.. kind of like a mass of thin vine-ish grass that you can keep at the top of the water for fry to hide in.

 

HI Dave, I know I keep ranting on about this but I am getting confused trying to locate posts.

This one (baby otos), in the otos section, is on the same subject as mine ('otos mating?'), in the breeding section.

Where do you think they both belong? Could you please move one to whichever of these two sections you feel is more relevant. I'd prefer otocynclus, but I know you'd prefer breeding, so breeding is OK. As long as they're both in the same section so it makes it easy for Muisicman and I to switch between the two.

Ta verrrry much! :;co

Yeah, I am bothered by some of the moves too.
I, for one, would look in the otto section if I wanted to read about breeding them. Seems unreasonable to have it in a different section, since people will want to know how to breed specific fish. And a thread called baby ottos should be in the otto section. Ye gads.

hrumph.

 

Yeah, I am bothered by some of the moves too.
I, for one, would look in the otto section if I wanted to read about breeding them. Seems unreasonable to have it in a different section, since people will want to know how to breed specific fish. And a thread called baby ottos should be in the otto section. Ye gads.

hrumph.

yes, a thread called baby otos could go in either the oto section or the breeding section. some members would look first in one section, the rest in the other. so it falls to giving forums a priority to try to group like information together. unfortunately, we can't make everyone happy with a post's location and just have to do our best to keep the posts ordered.

 

Thanks for the info on breeder grass, Dave. So, does it kinda looks like garden grass, then?

About the re-classifying (what a long debate this one is going to turn out to be ), I also think that if people are wanting information about feeding a betta, or breeding a betta, they have to be able to look in the betta section, not under generic food or breeding. For information classification: the more specific the better. It helps retrieval and is more intuitive. I am not just thinking about myself on this one. I think that it is everyone's logic to be looking at the most specific place first, then broaden their search. I think the generic breeding and feeding sections have their place (I even requested the feeding section): for species-generic, or multi-species matters.

We could even be more specific (in the future) in our sections breeding and food sub-sections under each species section, but IMO this is not really necessary at this stage, although I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other.

I'd like to be able to go with that assumption: any post that is species-specific goes in that species, regardless of whether it's about food, breeding, or going to Disneyland unaccompanied with your betta. Any post that talks about breeding, or food in general, or that talks about multiple species, goes in the more generic section for the subject covered.

Then it's no longer up to the each individual's judgement to classify and find their posts, but we follow a consistent line of logic. If we publish/broadcast/sticky this logic, you'll have less re-locating to do too. Waddaya reckon?

I am not sensitive to the argument that keeps popping up: 'we need to tidy up the forum'. What I am saying doesn't go against that, but I am saying please move them following the more specific first logic.

I am also not sensitive to the argument that different people think differently about it. I really think that an objective, consistent and logical consensus can be easily be reached (always go for the most specific). The key will be to communicate it so everyone's aware of the logic.

Sorry about the rant, Dave. Still mates? l

 

Back to breeding stuff, breeder grass is like the generic grass you find in a front yard. it is made to either float or be buried like any other plant. I have my on the bottom of the tank, as I didn't like the floating look...

 

Very interesting, I am going to try to replicate your conditions in my smallest tank, and see what happens! Never hurt to try.

Fish in the Frozen North

 

Thanks for the info on breeder grass, Dave. So, does it kinda looks like garden grass, then?

yea, pretty much. check for a list of some floating plants.. a lot of these can be used as 'breeder grass', but I think duckweed and guppy grass tend to be popular. Java moss is another good one.. pretty much whatever will float and give the fry a place to hide works.

About the re-classifying (what a long debate this one is going to turn out to be ), I also think that if people are wanting information about feeding a betta, or breeding a betta, they have to be able to look in the betta section, not under generic food or breeding. For information classification: the more specific the better. It helps retrieval and is more intuitive. I am not just thinking about myself on this one. I think that it is everyone's logic to be looking at the most specific place first, then broaden their search. I think the generic breeding and feeding sections have their place (I even requested the feeding section): for species-generic, or multi-species matters.

We could even be more specific (in the future) in our sections breeding and food sub-sections under each species section, but IMO this is not really necessary at this stage, although I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other.

I'd like to be able to go with that assumption: any post that is species-specific goes in that species, regardless of whether it's about food, breeding, or going to Disneyland unaccompanied with your betta. Any post that talks about breeding, or food in general, or that talks about multiple species, goes in the more generic section for the subject covered.

Then it's no longer up to the each individual's judgement to classify and find their posts, but we follow a consistent line of logic. If we publish/broadcast/sticky this logic, you'll have less re-locating to do too. Waddaya reckon?

I am not sensitive to the argument that keeps popping up: 'we need to tidy up the forum'. What I am saying doesn't go against that, but I am saying please move them following the more specific first logic.

I am also not sensitive to the argument that different people think differently about it. I really think that an objective, consistent and logical consensus can be easily be reached (always go for the most specific). The key will be to communicate it so everyone's aware of the logic.

Sorry about the rant, Dave. Still mates? l

yea.. the thing is, it's a relative thing and some members will look for information one way and some another.. whichever logic train I use to move posts, I'll have the same problem. I try to move only posts solely dealing with food to food or solely dealing with disease to disease, then posts relating solely to a species to their species forum and all other posts that are mixed stay in their spots. basically i'm just trying to move posts that are dealing with only a forum topic to the forum and following the heirarchy of the board in doing so.. that's why I gave food and disease a higher priority since they're up a level or 2 levels from a species specific post.

rather than go round about the logic pole, the best and fairest thing I can think of to do would be to run a poll and see which way a majority of the members would look for information and base post moves after the poll has run on the method that would suit the majority. hopefully many new members will vote as i'd like the views of members not familiar with the site layout too.. you and me both have developed our ways of browsing posts, but new members have the freshest outlook. and a sticky would follow to help new members get up to speed on the placement of posts.

 

Thanks for the info on breeder grass, Dave. So, does it kinda looks like garden grass, then?

yea, pretty much. check for a list of some floating plants.. a lot of these can be used as 'breeder grass', but I think duckweed and guppy grass tend to be popular. Java moss is another good one.. pretty much whatever will float and give the fry a place to hide works.

Oooh, so breeder grass floats? I see. Am trying my (not very green) fingers are Java moss at the moment. Betta seems to like it, he's blowing a bubble nest on top of it.

About the re-classifying (what a long debate this one is going to turn out to be ), I also think that if people are wanting information about feeding a betta, or breeding a betta, they have to be able to look in the betta section, not under generic food or breeding. For information classification: the more specific the better. It helps retrieval and is more intuitive. I am not just thinking about myself on this one. I think that it is everyone's logic to be looking at the most specific place first, then broaden their search. I think the generic breeding and feeding sections have their place (I even requested the feeding section): for species-generic, or multi-species matters.

We could even be more specific (in the future) in our sections breeding and food sub-sections under each species section, but IMO this is not really necessary at this stage, although I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other.

I'd like to be able to go with that assumption: any post that is species-specific goes in that species, regardless of whether it's about food, breeding, or going to Disneyland unaccompanied with your betta. Any post that talks about breeding, or food in general, or that talks about multiple species, goes in the more generic section for the subject covered.

Then it's no longer up to the each individual's judgement to classify and find their posts, but we follow a consistent line of logic. If we publish/broadcast/sticky this logic, you'll have less re-locating to do too. Waddaya reckon?

I am not sensitive to the argument that keeps popping up: 'we need to tidy up the forum'. What I am saying doesn't go against that, but I am saying please move them following the more specific first logic.

I am also not sensitive to the argument that different people think differently about it. I really think that an objective, consistent and logical consensus can be easily be reached (always go for the most specific). The key will be to communicate it so everyone's aware of the logic.

Sorry about the rant, Dave. Still mates? l

yea.. the thing is, it's a relative thing and some members will look for information one way and some another.. whichever logic train I use to move posts, I'll have the same problem. I try to move only posts solely dealing with food to food or solely dealing with disease to disease, then posts relating solely to a species to their species forum and all other posts that are mixed stay in their spots. basically i'm just trying to move posts that are dealing with only a forum topic to the forum and following the heirarchy of the board in doing so.. that's why I gave food and disease a higher priority since they're up a level or 2 levels from a species specific post.

rather than go round about the logic pole, the best and fairest thing I can think of to do would be to run a poll and see which way a majority of the members would look for information and base post moves after the poll has run on the method that would suit the majority. hopefully many new members will vote as i'd like the views of members not familiar with the site layout too.. you and me both have developed our ways of browsing posts, but new members have the freshest outlook. and a sticky would follow to help new members get up to speed on the placement of posts.

That's a great idea!

 

you'll have to get pics of that when you get your camera.. sounds cute.

that poll is up.

 

I went to peek in my tank today and noticed something tiny attached to the glass near the top. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that it's a baby Oto! The little guy is tiny, maybe 1/4 of an inch, and he was just hanging out on the top of the glass. I have ten of these guys in my tank (I guess 11 now!), but I didn't think that they'd actually spawn. Here's a couple of pictures of the little one, wagging his tiny tail around and basically acting just like the other Otos. Thought you guys might want to see this.

 

Oh that is just the cutest ❤️

 

That’s awesome! I was always under the understanding that ottos were strictly wild caught. Learn something new every day

 

That’s awesome! I was always under the understanding that ottos were strictly wild caught. Learn something new every day

I'm pretty sure that the ones you buy from the fish store are wild caught. I know that mine were. I'm pretty shocked they mated in the tank, I guess that they must be happy in there!

 

I'm pretty sure that the ones you buy from the fish store are wild caught. I know that mine were. I'm pretty shocked they mated in the tank, I guess that they must be happy in there!

Big congrats and yes I agree they must be very happy

 

Most are wild caught but there are a few places to buy tank bred ones. Aquaticarts is one of them I believe so its possible petco has them too.

 

I am so jealous !!! So awesome.

 

amazing, I would love to have my otos spawn

 

I went to peek in my tank today and noticed something tiny attached to the glass near the top. Upon closer inspection, it turns out that it's a baby Oto! The little guy is tiny, maybe 1/4 of an inch, and he was just hanging out on the top of the glass. I have ten of these guys in my tank (I guess 11 now!), but I didn't think that they'd actually spawn. Here's a couple of pictures of the little one, wagging his tiny tail around and basically acting just like the other Otos. Thought you guys might want to see this.
View attachment 541297View attachment 541302

That's amazing! Congratulations! I've read somewhere they's difficult to breed in a tank so they must be so happy in yours!

 

That's amazing! Congratulations! I've read somewhere they's difficult to breed in a tank so they must be so happy in yours!

Sadly it's been a while since I've seen the little guy, not sure if he's still in there, but I do hope he made it.

 

Sadly it's been a while since I've seen the little guy, not sure if he's still in there, but I do hope he made it.

Oh no! Hope that little guy is just sticking around somewhere!