Feeding Oto in 10 gallon

I have a 10 gallon non-planted tank and the fish store sold me just one Oto as I had an algae problem. Put the dude in and he CLEANED UP - like big time. Also at the same time put in 3 cherry shrimp and two horned nerite snails. Long story short, I'm worried about my Oto not having enough to eat any more. I put algae waffers in but the other fish go HAM on those things and poor Oto doesn't stand a chance before they're gone. I've put some cucumber in and he seems to do OK with it, I'm just worried a) he's alone b) does he eat enough c) I don't/won't have enough of an ecology to support any more Oto's.

The tank was 2 months established, all parameters are within guidelines. He's lasted about 4 weeks. Thoughts?

 

My advice: Offer lettuce, zucchinI and cucumber. I'm astonished it's still alive. You have to offer supplementary food basically around the clock with Otos or they go in the starvation cycle.

 

My advice: Offer lettuce, zucchinI and cucumber. I'm astonished it's still alive. You have to offer supplementary food basically around the clock with Otos or they go in the starvation cycle.

And some protein !

 

And some protein !

... and some protein. Catfish tabs 1-2x a week do the trick most of the time.

Can we have a look at the tank in total? The way the little guy sits there on the substrate makes me think you'll have to change things in general.

 

Live plants will help both the Otto and the shrimp. Your right that tank can not support 2 ottos as is. Those wafers break apart so he should be able to find some. How many fish are in the tank and what are they?

 

Good news is while he doesn't look too fat and happy, he doesn't look like he's starving yet either. In my experience some take to the tabs. But I have others that will only eat off of live plants.

 

I put some cucumber on a skewer and he seems to do ok, I took some pics that I'll add later once they sync to my google folder. But the tank has 1 Molly, 1 Platy, 1 Sword tail and 4 fry of Molly (used to be 2 Molly but one died after the fry were born), 1 Oto, 3 Red Cherry Shrimp, 1 Amano Shrimp, 1 Ghost Shrimp and 2 miniature Nerite snails. I know it's probably a little over crowded but everybody is still young for now, every fish is an inch or under. The shrimp and snails don't add much bio-load either. I didn't plan on the Mollys breeding either.


Here's a pic of the 3 adults

 

It's pretty overcrowded and overstocked. Have you considered upscaling to a 20 or better a 29 gallon in the near future?

 

Yeah you’ve got some fish in there. Me I would return all your livebearers. If they bred you’ll have way to many fish. Everybody starts with a 10g. But they are the hardest to keep going. Especially as a beginner. They always end up with to many fish. Look into the nano fish and return what I said and get a small school of nano fish or shrimp. Best starter tank is a 29g.

 

Here's a pic of the tank as well as Oto macking on some cucumber