Otocinclus still not finding wafers

I have had 3 otos in a 10 gallon for almost a month now. I have been dropping in wafers but they still have not figured out that they are food. I haven’t had any algae for a while now and their stomach is red (I have seen on others posts that it may be a lack of food). I am starting to become concerned that they may starve because they can’t find the wafers. Any ideas?

 

There are MANY threads on here that give hints on feeding Otocinclus.

Shortcut: fresh vegetables (cucumber, zucchini etc), repashy soylent green, algae rocks from a trough on the window sill, frozen cyclops, protogen, bacter AE...

Getting Otos to eat something else but aufwuchs is hard.

 

There are MANY threads on here that give hints on feeding Otocinclus.

Shortcut: fresh vegetables (cucumber, zucchini etc), repashy soylent green, algae rocks from a trough on the window sill, frozen cyclops, protogen, bacter AE...

Getting Otos to eat something else but aufwuchs is hard.

Don’t I soak the vegetables before I add them?

 

Boil them so that they sink

 

blanching is enough. Otherwise you can just put them on a fork.

 

I suggest crushing up the wafers and using a turkey blaster or a small syringe to direct the food to the otos

 

The first time crumble food which they can scavage of the leaves.

 

I have had 3 otos in a 10 gallon for almost a month now. I have been dropping in wafers but they still have not figured out that they are food. I haven’t had any algae for a while now and their stomach is red (I have seen on others posts that it may be a lack of food). I am starting to become concerned that they may starve because they can’t find the wafers. Any ideas?

I tried feeding some vegetables and it’s seemed to work, I boiled a carrot, a cucumber slice (I did 2, one without skin and one with), lettuce and celery. I boiled them until they were soft because I’ve read they’ll only eat it when it’s soft. I only added so much just to see which ones they like first.

I then put them in some ice water then in the tank. I propped them up near the glass so they might accidentally go on them when they’re searching the glass, that’s how mine found them. I also sliced a hole in one of the cucumber slice and put an algae wafer in there to see if they’ll go for that and they were trying to get to it but the mollies I have were scaring them off and ate it before they could.. weird because they don’t even notice the regular algae wafers. I also read that they’ll eat more at night time when the other fish go into sleep mode, so I’m going to see if they eat any overnight

Here’s a pic of one of them. They haven’t found the other veggies yet but I’ll leave them in overnight to see if they do. I’ll update later if anything else happens