One more try with Otos

I have always wanted Otos and never succeeded in keeping them long. I have a stable 29 gallon setup. I am good at growing algae. The Mystery Snails aren't enough to keep up with it if I don't scrape it off the leaves. The Rubber Lipped Pleco really only seems interested in it if it's growing on the glass.

...so I picked up a pair of Otos at my LFS, who usually does a good job of acclimating fish. So far, I'm almost a week in and both look good. Color is good. The larger of the two is on my plant leaves all day. The smaller of the two seems to be making night-time appearances, because I see him if I turn on my desk lamp in the morning, eating away at algae on the glass. I don't see him during the day. My Angel appears interested.

Any tips from Oto keepers, other than "don't keep them with an Angel," because that's not possible, will be appreciated. I am planning to do more frequent water changes to keep the quality up. They have plenty to eat. They look healthy. Your thoughts?

 

Congrats!
I had a similar issue when I first tried. Lost a few. After doing more research it appears this is a common occurrence. They are super sensitive basically due to starvation when you first get them. As long as they are in a mature/seasoned tank and eating, after a couple of weeks you should be good to go. I have a pair going on 2 years. They even enjoy some fresh veggies from time to time.

Good Luck!

 

Yes ottos are a tough fish. If yours are eating they should be good. With 2 try adding at night a half of an algae wafer. Put it in the same area and do it 2-3 times a week. For 2 a 29 is perfect and they should do good. I have 4 in a tank with angels with no problems and 5 is a discus tank again with no problems. Another mine eat is blanched baby spinach leaves. Add them instead of a algae wafers if you want something different.

 

You should start training them to eat algae wafer or zucchinI even if there's lots of algae still. I just got 3, but put them in quarantine. There was plenty of algae, but I was dropping in algae wafers anyways everyday along with a zucchinI piece. They ignored it for the first few weeks and now they eat it. I hope they figure it out now when I move them to my main tank.

 

Thanks. I'll add a partial wafer at night. That sounds like a good idea for the time when there is little algae to eat.

 

I drip acclimate almost everything for an hour. I have them in two tanks and almost never see them only occasionally. They have big bellies and I don't feed them in my established planted tanks other than spirulina once a week to the shrimp in there.

 

So far, so good. Good color. Both out when the lights are on eating algae off of my plants. Both are growing. Both seem aware of the Angel when it approaches them curiously. We shall see. I have hope at a week... Let's see how week two goes.

 

Still alive and eating away at my algae. Dare I hope?

 

When I set up my tank back in Oct 2018 iirc I started with 4 after the tank was cycled and only 1 survived. A few months ago I put in another 4 and so far all are doing fine, finally. I don't think I had enough algae growing on the plant leaves and back glass initially but do now. I have one large Angel in there with the other 50 or so community fish and no one seems to bother them, its quite heavily planted.