oto or no oto?

ok, my sucking loach is so lazy, I have algae cos of the amount of sun in the room and the no matter how little I feed them they just don't seem to eat!  the loach doesn't seem to touch the algae, so give him half an algae wafer every few days which he hardly touches, which just fuels the excess food=algae prob. tank on restricted lighting too. what I need is an efficient clean up crew to help get the tank back in shape! now I love bristlenoses, but I don't think one would be happy in a 15gal (15 gal too small for a bn? - if anyone thinks a bn would be ok in there let me know), and I think a sucking loach would perhaps attach to it and harm it? what do you think? so I thought of otos as they seem a popular choice. now, decisions i'm no good at....so, if I get one will it be compatible with the sucking loach? do I get just one cos it seems from what i've read they like company, so how many do I get? i'm close to capacity and can't move any fish out of there really, but can do more/bigger water changes if required if I go slightly over the capacity to keep the levels in check and the fish happy.
opinions please......
tan

 

From what I've heard they're ok, but I would stick to the loach.

 

Mind you I've only been at this a couple of weeks, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But considering your current load on your 15 Gal tank, it doesn't look like you can fit any more fish even if it is something as small as an oto. Also I understand they prefer some wood to gnaw on, do you have room for that in the 15 Gal? I know you said you didn't have room for fish moving, but if the 15 Gal is in a high sunlight area I would see about switching some fish around to make room for 2 or 3 oto's since they seem to like friends according to what I've been reading.

 

if absolutely necessary I can move the penguins out into the rasbora tank as that's nearly empty! my only reservations are that tetras are really hard to catch (mine are anyway, especially with the live plants in there, last time I had to pull all the plants out to catch them which doesn't help their roots getting established! also it'd mean nearly 50% of the tank would be algae eaters which seems odd! feeding enough flake for just 5 neons would be just a few grains, so i'm bound to over feed them, thus fuelling the algae....but with the algae eaters that wouldnt be a bad thing anymore! decisions decisions!!! so would oto's be ok with the sucking loach? I mean so far he keeps himself to himself and shown no aggression at all...i'd like to keep it that way!! I don't want my oto's to be attacked by the seemingly harmless loach. :-\
tan

 

Until it's nice and clean I would one of your bn cats and an oto. Have you thought of a cory or a dwarf pleco? That's what I would go with for that size tank.

 

Until it's nice and clean I would one of your bn cats and an oto. Have you thought of a cory or a dwarf pleco? That's what I would go with for that size tank.

one my bn's would gladly do the job (he'd think he was in heaven!!), but would my loach attack him? also, i've heard corys aren't too good at eating algae and are better at scavenging scraps?

 

I honestly don't know what this is with people saying corydoras eat algae! ???

I have 3 and also PLENTY of algae. They eat leftover food, NOT algae!

Maybe if you starved them... ???

 

well I have a cory and a oto. that's why I say one of each. They do great work in my tank. The oto is great for getting the sides.

 

I have two little otos. The tank was getting pretty green. After some research, and trying to find a tiger-banded peckoltia (nobody in the area carries them), I decided to go with the otos. Within a week, all of the algae was gone off the sides of the tank.
My cory has always done a good job of keeping large algal blooms from the bottom of the tank, and sometimes even crawls up plants, getting the larger chunks from there. It doesn't polish it all off, though. It just gets the bigger chunks.

 

Well, if you do decide to get Otos make sure to get at least 2, preferably more. They need company. I haven't looked at the tank contents though, and if it's already well stocked you may not want to get any, since Otos like good water quality. (not saying you have bad water quality, just the nitrates are likely to be higher in a well stocked tank.)

 

I have a 40 gallon tank with 2 angels, 8 neons, and 6 peppered Corys. I made the mistake of putting the tank in indirect sunlight and by the end of the week it is super green. Should I add an oto to this tank? Or would that push the stocking limit?

 

It certainly wouldn't make it over stocked. I don't think they will make that big of a difference though. What you need to do is move the tank. You will forever be fighting algae if it's in direct sunlight. Right now the algae might be due to being a new tank but if you're in the northern hemisphere, it's only going to get warmer and the days are only going to be longer and sunnier. If you want to put another algae eater in there, I'd consider a Siamese algae eater but first I'd try to figure out how and where to move the tank.

 

Not one, they are social fish. Go with 6 or more.

The limit depends on your filtration and maintenance.

They also need more than alage to eat. Fresh veggies and algae wafers.

 

I will try to see if the tank can be moved... Aren’t Siamese Algae Eaters aggressive? I have a Topfin 60 power filter and do water changes every week around 25% I do have algae wafers,but as for them not being effective, why do people produce algae farms for otos then? If I got 6 otos there wouldn’t be turfwars with the Corys? (36x12 inches bottom panel)

 

I will try to see if the tank can be moved... Aren’t Siamese Algae Eaters aggressive? I have a Topfin 60 power filter and do water changes every week around 25% I do have algae wafers,but as for them not being effective, why do people produce algae farms for otos then? If I got 6 otos there wouldn’t be turfwars with the Corys? (36x12 inches bottom panel)

I am not a fan of SAE's at all.

Ottos and corys get along just fine. I have them both (5 diffrent types of corys) in all our aquariums.

Not sure I understand the wafer question.

 

Lynn said that otos aren’t effective... As for you saying they need more then then algae, I have algae wafers with zucchini. How are you determining if the tank isn’t overstocked?

 

Yeah it seems that sometimes SAE's only eat sporadic algae about a non-consistent 50% of the time, even in a larger group of 'em. I always stick to Nerites, Malaysian Trumpet snails, Otos and Amanos. Most of those help a monumentally great deal. Especially Amanos.

 

Lynn said that otos aren’t effective... As for you saying they need more then then algae, I have algae wafers with zucchini. How are you determining if the tank isn’t overstocked?

Ottos are some of the best. They do not eat all types though. Black beard, long hair algae. No algae eater eats green water. As I understand green water can be handled with a quality UV sterilizer of the proper size.

When it comes to stock limits there is more to it than just numbers. Where in the water column do they reside most of the time. The foot print, filtration, plants, maintenance and the personality of the fish are all considerations. In my 44 we have 6 ottos, 6 false juliI corys, 1 large angel, 1 sword tail, 1 dwarf gourami, 2 ghost shrimp, two gold rams, a golden wonder killifish and 4 mystery snails. There is 700 GPH filtration, lots of plants and it is filled with treated RO/DI water from our 5 stage system. There are caves for the rams, tall open water for the angel, plants at the top for the killifish etc. Behind the wood to the right is a grove of red Myrio for the times a fish needs privacy.

An aquarium is a microcosm that needs to be designed with the needs of each of the residents fully in mind. Notice there are no fast moving school fish? The aquarium is the wrong shape for them. We have them in shorter, longer aquariums so they have length to swim in.

 

Maybe it is better to remove the cause of the algae than to think of a certain fish to solve the problem. Often people are disappointed though Otos are great.

 

Looking at the surface area the Corys use less then half the foot print. The spend half the time swimming and half the time “passed out”. I could see ottos fitting. I will post a pic of the algae.

There. This tank is near the end of the week of maintenance (looking gross) on sundays I scrub it and then it collects back up. I’m not asking the ottos to do all the work. If they could keep the side panels cleaner then they are then, hurray!

 

Looking at the surface area the Corys use less then half the foot print. The spend half the time swimming and half the time “passed out”. I could see ottos fitting. I will post a pic of the algae.

There. This tank is near the end of the week of maintenance (looking gross) on sundays I scrub it and then it collects back up. I’m not asking the ottos to do all the work. If they could keep the side panels cleaner then they are then, hurray!

Definitely get some plants in there. Pennywort and floating plants are good at cleaning up. Duckweed is something of a commitment, once it’s established it can be hard to get rid of.

 

Ottos are really sensitive fish when first added to your aquarium, it's not uncommon to lose half of the lot you buy.

 

I just propagated a java fern, that’s why the one in the front is the smallest. More java ferns? Or you got any other low light suggestions? I will make sure to drip acclimate. You can’t see it in the picture, but I do have some wisteria in there. It is making a comeback from melting. My friend gave me a whole bunch of water lettuce in a plastic bag. His tank’s surface was covered. As for my sisters 3 gallon betta tank, not so much.