New To Otocinclus

hi. So I have a 12 gal tank with a male Betta and it is half planted, I am filling it out. Today I was in the pet store and the clerk showed me her new stock of ottos, and said they could do well with my Betta. So I bought 3 and now I realize I know barely anything on Ottos, since I’ve never owned them in the past. I know they should be easy to care for, but google seems to tell be they are rather sensitive. I also might have a couple as she said she can’t tell them apart. If I do, what should I be prepped for?

My water temp is 26 Celsius, ph is 7.4, and ammonia, nitrates, nitrite, is all at 0 or.2. If that. The tank is comfortably filtered for the Betta, a low flow meant for a 5 gal. Is there any recommendations you guys could offer to ensure they live and or how I could improve? The tank base is black sand with some gravel and driftwood/live plant. Also, with a lot of algae in my tank, not sure exactly what type of algae, should I be offering algae pellets? There is also a boatload of minI snails that come with plants.

 

Most people will say otto cats will do better in shoals of 6 or more but I have them in my smaller betta tanks as well and they keep the plants extremely clean. If I were you I may have gone with just a single one or maybe 2 they are small but voracious eaters. I have a tough time feeding mine algae wafers shrimp pellets and veggies but some will eat it so offering it would be a good idea in tiny amounts at first as to not foul up your water or bloat your betta. Their like the ferrarrI version of nerite snails

 

Good to hear that you have some algae in the tank already. One mistake owners of Oto's make is to place them in new tanks with not enough algae to eat. They can learn to eat veggie and algae waffers, but are strictly vegetarians.

 

Thanks for the reply. That’s useful to know. I appreciate that. I sort of decided on buying them since there was a lot of algae on the plants and glass

hi. Just wondering how I could tell if my ottos are stressed or comfy upon being released into a new tank, and also, how to tell gender. Thx.

 

HI there.
Ottos usually clean the surfaces of the tank and search for leftover food.
If they are hiding a lot and inactive they might still be getting used to the tank.
If they are swimming around and exploring structures and looking for food they should be just comfortable.
Just make sure to check their bellies, sometimes tanks are too clean and hold no algae for the ottos to eat, if this is the case just add some algae wafers at night.
I’m not sure about The gender of these fish tho.

 

From what I understand, otos are difficult for the first month. If they live for more than a month, they are very hardy. But between being caught and shipped, they usually arrive starved. And they depend on a gut bacteria. When the oto has been starved, the bacteria dies. Even if they have a good amount of algae in the tank to eat, without the bacteria, their little tummies don’t process it so they still end up starving even if they’re eating. They are very hard to breed in an aquarium so most in pet stores are wild caught. Which means they have a good chance of bringing in parasites.

Good luck. I have 4 and they are tiny little algae eating machines!

 

Good to hear that you have some algae in the tank already. One mistake owners of Oto's make is to place them in new tanks with not enough algae to eat. They can learn to eat veggie and algae waffers, but are strictly vegetarians.

Not necessarily, my otos have learnt to munch on bloodworms, daphnia, cyclops and pellets that I feed my cories. They can adapt, in fact, they prefer these food more than the algae that's in the tank now.