Oto looks thin!

[laurenv]

Hi! One of my oto is nice and plump, swims around a lot cleaning, also eats tabs and zucchini. The other looks quite thin and doesn't seem to try very hard to find food. It won't eat the tabs, seems to enjoy zucchini, but he's not bulking up at all?? Anything else I can do to help him? Have only been doing veggies for a couple days as I have become worried about him!
I got them both at the same time. About 2 months ago.

Tia!

 

[Lakenvelderin]

I'm not an oto expert by any means, but could it be that the plumper one is female and the skinny one is male?

 

[CichlidJynx]

Hi! One of my oto is nice and plump, swims around a lot cleaning, also eats tabs and zucchini. The other looks quite thin and doesn't seem to try very hard to find food. It won't eat the tabs, seems to enjoy zucchini, but he's not bulking up at all?? Anything else I can do to help him? Have only been doing veggies for a couple days as I have become worried about him!
I got them both at the same time. About 2 months ago.

Tia!

Most Otos are caught and shipped by the thousands. The entire time starved from collection and shipped, then spread through out the stores. My guess is that he’s got internal parasites, I would treat with API General Cure.

 

[laurenv]

Most Otos are caught and shipped by the thousands. The entire time starved from collection and shipped, then spread through out the stores. My guess is that he’s got internal parasites, I would treat with API General Cure.

Thanks for the suggestion, I might do that, he has not improved

 

[CichlidJynx]

Thanks for the suggestion, I might do that, he has not improved

Well good news is General cure is shrimp, snail, plant, and fish safe so if you have to dose a display tank there’s no worries.

 

[laurenv]

Well good news is General cure is shrimp, snail, plant, and fish safe so if you have to dose a display tank there’s no worries.

That's good to know, I have never had to treat anything and only have one tank!

 

[Kevin1962]

Generally, once an oto has little food (during shipment and waiting to be purchased), it may refuse to eat and die from starvation.
Luckily, a LFS does a great job of feeding during a long quarantine and the otos are fat, healthy and ready to move into my tank.

 

[MacZ]

General cure will likely be money thrown out the window. I guess the thin one starved too long and so the bacteria in his intestines have died off already. They can munch as much as they want in that state, they eat for nothing. It will literally waste away, nothing to do about this. :/

 

[CichlidJynx]

General cure will likely be money thrown out the window. I guess the thin one starved too long and so the bacteria in his intestines have died off already. They can munch as much as they want in that state, they eat for nothing. It will literally waste away, nothing to do about this. :/

That’s usually the case but I hate tell people, id at least like to see someone try and if that doesn’t work at least we’ve educated someone about medication

 

[MacZ]

You know... I just went through 4 month of Otos slowly fading away (until extinction in my tank) while trying to do anything just to get them to eat. I also hate to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be clear about it. No half-truths, especially about Otos.
I rather hear a "Ha, they survived anyhow! You were wrong!" after some weeks/months instead of a "Why didn't you tell me it was futile?", y'know?

 

[Anthony1976]

Hi! One of my oto is nice and plump, swims around a lot cleaning, also eats tabs and zucchini. The other looks quite thin and doesn't seem to try very hard to find food. It won't eat the tabs, seems to enjoy zucchini, but he's not bulking up at all?? Anything else I can do to help him? Have only been doing veggies for a couple days as I have become worried about him!
I got them both at the same time. About 2 months ago.

Tia!

I bought six of these and got them eating zucchinI after a week or two. But I bought a few more for my other tank and they just wouldn’t touch it. They had cleared up most of the algae in the tank so I had to put small rocks in a tub of water in the garden in full sun to grow algae on them then I’d put one rock in the tank a week. I did this before I bought them as you need a back up plan if they don’t eat zucchinI or spinach you’re stuffed. I find my others won’t touch the zucchinI when it’s been steamed they’ll only eat it fresh.

 

[CichlidJynx]

You know... I just went through 4 month of Otos slowly fading away (until extinction in my tank) while trying to do anything just to get them to eat. I also hate to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be clear about it. No half-truths, especially about Otos.
I rather hear a "Ha, they survived anyhow! You were wrong!" after some weeks/months instead of a "Why didn't you tell me it was futile?", y'know?

I get it but my Otos needed 2 rounds of general cure to be eating again. You have to use these medications in succession. After offering fresh veggies they began eating then I put them on HikarI algae wafers. I guess I got lucky

 

[MacZ]

I get it but my Otos needed 2 rounds of general cure to be eating again. You have to use these medications in succession. After offering fresh veggies they began eating then I put them on HikarI algae wafers. I guess I got lucky

It comes down to the batch and the individual fish. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[laurenv]

General cure will likely be money thrown out the window. I guess the thin one starved too long and so the bacteria in his intestines have died off already. They can munch as much as they want in that state, they eat for nothing. It will literally waste away, nothing to do about this. :/

That's so sad!

You know... I just went through 4 month of Otos slowly fading away (until extinction in my tank) while trying to do anything just to get them to eat. I also hate to be the bearer of bad news, but somebody has to be clear about it. No half-truths, especially about Otos.
I rather hear a "Ha, they survived anyhow! You were wrong!" after some weeks/months instead of a "Why didn't you tell me it was futile?", y'know?

I want to give it the best chance, but unfortunately the medication doesn't seem promising, and general cure doesn't seem to be available anywhere locally So I might not get it in time either way. If it parishes and the other fish consume it , will everyone be infected? Should quarantine it?

 

[MacZ]

Good question. I mean, it's not a 100% safe that it's even sick and not "just" starving. General cure also wouldn't be the right med, I'd go with something especially against internal parasites. Sera Flagellol works and is available almost everywhere. If not, look up the main ingredient and try finding a similar product. As I said, I doubt the fish has internal parasites anyways, so I can't give you insurance that this will help at all.

For the same reason it's also a good question if the other fish can get infected when they scavenge on it. Depends a bit on what other fish you keep with them. I kept mine with cardinal tetras, who are scavenging quite a lot in the wild as far as I know. They didn't even let go when I was trying to get the bodies out with a net and a manipulator. They just ignored those and went on feeding.
Most often the other fish have already been in contact with the pathogens at the point a fish dies. So... I think it doesn't matter anymore. Rather focus on prevention for the other fish. Feed all of them high quality foods, maybe add something with tannins to strengthen their immune systems and do your waterchanges. Then if the unevitable should happen, just be quick and get out the corpse before the others go into piranha-mode.

 

[laurenv]

Good question. I mean, it's not a 100% safe that it's even sick and not "just" starving. General cure also wouldn't be the right med, I'd go with something especially against internal parasites. Sera Flagellol works and is available almost everywhere. If not, look up the main ingredient and try finding a similar product. As I said, I doubt the fish has internal parasites anyways, so I can't give you insurance that this will help at all.

For the same reason it's also a good question if the other fish can get infected when they scavenge on it. Depends a bit on what other fish you keep with them. I kept mine with cardinal tetras, who are scavenging quite a lot in the wild as far as I know. They didn't even let go when I was trying to get the bodies out with a net and a manipulator. They just ignored those and went on feeding.
Most often the other fish have already been in contact with the pathogens at the point a fish dies. So... I think it doesn't matter anymore. Rather focus on prevention for the other fish. Feed all of them high quality foods, maybe add something with tannins to strengthen their immune systems and do your waterchanges. Then if the unevitable should happen, just be quick and get out the corpse before the others go into piranha-mode.

Okay, I'll keep a close eye on it. I have tetras in the tank and one male betta fish. I also put those dried tannin leaves in regularly. I don't think my fish are as aggressive as yours, but a long time ago I did have a mysterious Tetra disappearance and assumed they did scavenge on him, there was no evidence! I'll take a look around for the Flagyl, but maybe I'll get lucky and right now It does still move around the tank and appears to be eating sometimes? The other is much more vigorous.

 

[CichlidJynx]

Good question. I mean, it's not a 100% safe that it's even sick and not "just" starving. General cure also wouldn't be the right med, I'd go with something especially against internal parasites. Sera Flagellol works and is available almost everywhere. If not, look up the main ingredient and try finding a similar product. As I said, I doubt the fish has internal parasites anyways, so I can't give you insurance that this will help at all.

For the same reason it's also a good question if the other fish can get infected when they scavenge on it. Depends a bit on what other fish you keep with them. I kept mine with cardinal tetras, who are scavenging quite a lot in the wild as far as I know. They didn't even let go when I was trying to get the bodies out with a net and a manipulator. They just ignored those and went on feeding.
Most often the other fish have already been in contact with the pathogens at the point a fish dies. So... I think it doesn't matter anymore. Rather focus on prevention for the other fish. Feed all of them high quality foods, maybe add something with tannins to strengthen their immune systems and do your waterchanges. Then if the unevitable should happen, just be quick and get out the corpse before the others go into piranha-mode.

So my question to you is why Sera? The active ingredients in Sera is just Prozy (unless my research has done me wrong) as we’re API is prozy and metro?

 

[MacZ]

I think because we don't have API here and when it comes to meds I only go by what I know, plus I didn't bother to look the API product up. At least I said something with the same ingredient would do, too, but thanks for correcting me. I wasn't aware that it was the same active ingredient.
I might also have mistaken it for something similar we have here that's marketed as an allround med, that doesn't even have an active ingredient at all, only herbs and essences, without actual medical value.

Edit: In any case, mea culpa. Sorry for the confusion.