Otos mating?

oh you two....

hI hI hi. You're just as bad, Amanda!

 

oh you two....

hI hI hi. You're just as bad, Amanda!

lol, that's telling her!

 

am not!!

 

Wheres the pics?
Carol

 

hI hI hi, tha'ts what my husband's also asking. Basically, I was lucky enough to get a project (am an IT consultant) in Belgium, where my parents live. So instead of my normal sleeping in a hotel 4 nights a week, I now get to stay at my parents' for the duration of the project. The problem is that some of my childhood friends still live in the area so we're often spontaneous and arrange something at the last minute. Sometimes, it's handiest that I stay over at theirs and I ALWAYS seem to be doing that the day before my return, so I always leave my stuff at my parents'. This includes pictures of our wedding that my parents got from friends that I've been forgetting for 2 weeks in a row, and of course my camera upload station.... But this time I WILL be good and not leave my stuff behind.

What a loooooong story about nothing. Am feeling quite verbose this morning.

 

ok, we'll hold you to it. no pressure.. none at all..

 

tha'ts what my husband's also asking.

awwwww don't you like saying that?!

 

Actually I am really self-conscious about it, but I am starting to feel silly finding synonyms, so am taking the plunge. Still can't hear him say the w-word without flinching.

 

.. go for it.. hus-band.. husband.. husband

 

What are you, nuts!!!??? I nearly fell off my chair. I want to cherish that little word, to tame it first, slowly. And you just kinda threw me in cage with 10 lions just now!

 

hey i'm there for you laura-anniebella

I thought it was the husband that you tamed, not the word 'husband'? :;a

 

Here are my pictures (finally!). The first one was taken the first time we'd spotted them, so that fry would have been a couple of days old. It's next to its dad so you can see the size. The middle one was taken when they were about 3 weeks old, and the last ones (thermometer and couple of leaf ones) were taken this week (that would make them a month old). If you look at the thermometer one, you see the dad and the fry roughly at the same distance to my camera, that'll give you an idea of the size difference.

I was surprised as how quickly baby otos get adult-shaped. If you don't have an indication of the scale, you could think that they're adults on a couple of these pictures.

 

Oh, and for those of you who are curious, this is what bad eggs look like (pic one) and what good eggs look like (pic two).

 

yea, it's really interesting watching them go from egg to mini-fish.

 

For us, it was more egg - tadpole thingie blob - minI fish!

 

For us, it was more egg - tadpole thingie blob - minI fish!

The pictures are really cool! Thanks for posting them. There are definite stages fir egg bearers- egg=egg tadpole thingie blob= wigglers mini-fish = free swimming .
Carol

 

Thanks, Carol. I took long enough to post them!

I'll contact Paul off otocinclus.com to give them the pix. My oto fry will be faaaaamous

 

I'll contact Paul off otocinclus.com to give them the pix. My oto fry will be faaaaamous

Excellent idea! Don't let them get the big head
Carol

 

Naaaah. They're down-to-earth little guys.

 

Very nice looking fry. I am hoping some of my fish breed and I get some type of neat fry.
Tom

 

Man, kuhlI fry would be so awesome!!!

 

Man, kuhlI fry would be so awesome!!!

Than all you need is a bunch of coolies, and an undergravel filter and about a year or so and you would have hundreds of coolies. I am trying to get some more coolies so my current one is lonely.
Tom

 

Mmmmh. That could be seriously cool. Why the UGF?

 

Mmmmh. That could be seriously cool. Why the UGF?

This way they can have someplace to hide and the fry will grow up and not be disturbed by any ther fish.
Tom

 

But can't they have any type of hiding place? Why does it help that it's a filter?

 

But can't they have any type of hiding place? Why does it help that it's a filter?

I guess they could, but from what a guy that breeds them and sells them, he says the most effective way for him is with an UGF.
Tom

 

Ah OK. I think it could be to do with the current. I think probably kuhlI fry likes current and agitation.

 

I like the flat marbles for fry hiding.. they squirt in all the gaps so fast and it's hard for the bigger fish to get to them and we move fry as soon as we can so they don't have to hide long.. or move eggs if possible.

don't forget us when you become rich off the fame of the Oto fry, ok?

 

he he he. I am going to selll them for 1 million euros each!

 

i'm sure they sell beautifully for that price lol

Peace Out Callum!

 

You never know, you just never know.

 

its a starnge world sometimes

Peace Out Callum!

 

Well yeah, the fact that zebra plecos go for up to 200 dollars a piece. Crazy. Oh, and the silver arowana in our LFS goes for 1500 euros!

 

we don't get arownas very nuch in aus but we do get some saratgoas simlair thing close relavitve the most expensive pleco i've seen was a neraly fully grown sailfin for 150 dollar

Peace Out Callum!

 

he he he. I am going to selll them for 1 million euros each!

um.... ok.

 

Wow, serious? Sailfins go for that sort of prices?

we don't get arownas very nuch in aus but we do get some saratgoas simlair thing close relavitve the most expensive pleco i've seen was a neraly fully grown sailfin for 150 dollar

Peace Out Callum!

 

u interested, Dave? I'll make you a price: 500,000 euros each

he he he. I am going to selll them for 1 million euros each!

um.... ok.

 

ohh yer and about an inches long gold spot bn was 50 dollars

Peace Out Callum!

 

Well, you know, it's not just about how big the fish is. There's also the fact that my super secret otos can read and juggle and spit fire. That's got to be worth something. One of them is graduating from Harvard this month. Am a proud mummy!

 

Here's my e-mail to Paul Apgar from otocynclus.com. In case anybody's interested in the info I give him re: my oto tank conditions.

HI Paul


Finally I get back to you.

Although we orinally spotted lots of eggs (I'd say about 10?), we only ever saw 4 wrigglers. We now only see 2 fry, but they're really well formed and definitely oto-shaped. Although:
we had to go on holidays for 1 week 2 days after they were born, and
the automatic feeder failed who knows when during our trip (I came back to a busted feeder after having spent hours concocting the world's best oto-customised meal with a mix of chopped algae sheets, veggie fry food and sinking protein pellets ...), and
we had no algae to speak of...

Some are OK and doing fine (well, 2 is something)! The parents are OK too although I was worried aout the female appearing slightly pale for a while. I asked around on Fishlore.com and everybody had noticed changes of colour in their otos at time. We concluded that it had to be related to either variations in lighting or in food, or both.

Here's some info about my setup in case that's useful to you:

Here's what I feed adult and fry: I always leave a large leaf or spinach or slice of cucumber or slice of zucchinI at the bottom of the tank in a bowl. I always find an oto - fry or adult - on the veggies I leave there, so I know they eat it. I remove the veggies after 2 days, which I know is too long to leave something in the water but they seem to ignore it the first day (too hard?). I sometimes treat them with a HikarI algae wafer in their little food bowl which, again, they really seem to love a I always see them on it. I wonder if they always know to look for food in that bowl, hence giving them a better chance of not going without with aimless browsing? Intuitively, I feel it's not the best thing to do (to leave their food in a bowl, as it's so far from their natural browsing habits), but I wanted to keep my organic waste under control at least during the early phases, when I was afraid to vacuum the substrate for fear of sucking one of the tiny fry up.

They're in this tiny tank (about 25L), and I change 1/2 the water about 2x a week. I always replace the water with a watering can (could that explain why they mated and then fertilised the eggs?). I treat my water with SeaChem Prime. About a week after the first batch, we saw more eggs. We haven't seen any since. We thought we saw fry of a smaller size than the first batch a couple of days after the second batch of eggs disappeared, but we now only have 2 fry, and they seem to be the same size as each other, and of the earlier batch judging by their development.

Their tank is heavily planted with hornwort and a broad-leaved plant whose name I don't know. They seem to be grazing from these plants judging by the state of them (they have graze damage). I don't mind at all. Whatever keeps my otos happy. Their tank is heavily lit (14 hours/day).

I have been scared of vaccuming the substrate while the fry were young, so I am actually scared of testing my nitrates/nitrites/ammonia, although I've started vaccuming again recently. All I can say on this is that it's likely my water is far from perfect at the moment, despite my 2x weekly partial water changes. I say this so you get the complete story. It could be totally irrelevant.

The temperature feels pretty cold, but all of my thermometers are telling me a different temperature, to my great frustration (they actually vary by 8 degrees between the lowest and the highest quote, and some are digital and differ from each other...), so I would be afraid to quote you a temperature at this stage... . All I can say is that it feels pretty cold to the touch. I'd go as far as saying it feels like 24C or somewhere around there.

Oh, and important factor I believe is the tank's population. When they first mated, they were sharing their tank with 13 2 month-old molly fry. When we noticed them mating, we removed the molly fry in case they ate the eggs. Since 2 days ago, they now share their tank with 13 1 week-old molly fry again.

Our algae farm:


Don't ask! We've ended up not using that at all as I have repeatedly done silly things (such as not covering it, then covering it with an opaque cover, then adding a dirty filter to it thus polluting the water too much with lots of green/brown clumps of fish excrements falling off the filter...). A whole bunch of doh!'s



I was given a great tip which I must try though, now that my algae bowl is covered with transparent lid and in clean (and Prime-treated) water (honestly, sometimes I wonder how I survive with my common-sense deficiency...): to put a transparent jam jar in the bowl: that way, there'll be algae in and out of the jam jar which you can drop in your oto tank when ready.



All in all, two have survived without the extra algae, though.



Timescale

We first saw the eggs on 3 or 4 July 07. The pictures are dated so you can work it out from there.



Photos



I attach some pictures of the oto fry and eggs.

1 picture of the good eggs
1 picture of rotten eggs (with the white stuff.). Shows the male next to them for scale
1 picture of fry on 7 Jul
2 pictures of fry on 15 Jul
1 picture of fry on 19 Jul
1 picture of fry on 2 Aug (with oto dad on it too, for scale)
1 picture of the oto mom eating form the cucumber for the fun! Absolutely no scientific value!

I'd be honoured if you wanted to post these on your site, but I would understand if you don't, as they're perhaps not the best quality. If you felt like using them, please do so (and quote my name if you don't mind: am so proud of my babies!).

Oh, and we got some zebra otos now too, and they're awesome. Let me know if you'd like some pictures of these for your site. Oh, and nope, these have not mated, and there's a fat chance their eggs ever make it as these are sharing their tank with amano shrimps, kuhlI loaches and... dwarf puffers!

Laure-Anne