Tips for breeding ottos?

My female ottos are super full of eggs. What kind of environment do I need to make them in the mood. Will it hurt the females if they don't lay their eggs?? I have 10 ottos and most of them are females I think. It looks like 2 are males because they are still really skinny. Does anyone know about these cute little buggers.

Heidi

 

OH GOODY!!!! Get Pictures as the guy on the otocinclus will want pictures. Otos have only been bred in captivity a very few times. I think my little pair did a couple of times but Alexander had a snack and that was that. My temp is at a solid 82 degrees which they seem to like and I feed them HikarI Algae Wafers about 1/2 wafer a couple times a week and I do not do more than one 50% water change a week. My ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, and nitrates are 10, pH 7.4, Alkalinity(KH) 150, Hardness (GH) 300.

This is all I know. You might try looking on the otocinclus website I listed above as there may be some information about breeding them but it probably won't be much as I am sure that I had only heard of it happening once before my little ones did. and I am sure there have been more but for some reason they do not seem to write about it.

Rose

 

Here's a couple pics of my ottos.... are they prego ???

Heidi

I just check water levels and this is what I have. 10 gallon tank. Temp @ 80F Ammonia @ 0 Nitrite @ 0 Nitrate @ 20 GH @ 17 and pH @ 8
When I turned on the tankslights this am they all went crazy, should I leave the lights off so they don't get stressed. The tank wouls still get light from the room so it wouldn't be total darkness.

Heidi

 

I do not know. Mine never looked that plump but I do not see mine every day, sometimes not for a week or more. They only really come out a lot at night and the going ape thing when the light comes on is normal not wear and tear so don't worry about it. Your conditions sound fine so just watch them and let nature take its course, I guess unless you have a q tank to put them into. But I am not real sure that would be a good idea either. This is really uncharted territory here. Butterfly would probably know about the most as she has had cories that have given birth or layed eggs and I am at a loss.

Rose

 

SkippI if you are sure you have males and females I would recommend moving them to another tank where they can be alone. plenty of plants and other stuff to hide in and good water quality should have you seeing babies in the not too distant future. Good luck and check out that site Rose sent you
Carol

 

Try this page at least.

Rose

 

Thanks guys, went to the site and contacted Paul. He sent me a reply to keep him posted with some water levels he knows them to like. I have them in a breeding tank with no snails or other fish. The only thing it doen't have is gravel or any substrate on the bottom. All the gravel and such that I have is infested with snail. I placed some floating hornwort in there this AM from the tank that they came out of to see if that would help.  If you can think of anything else that I should try just let me know there are like 6 of them that are fat....  I will try and post the reply that I got from Paul on here so you can read it and give comments...  Will keep you updated, and will post new water levels and such tonight to keep a record and you all in the loop....  keep your fingers crossed....

Heidi

 

All fingers (and FINS) are crossed here. Have had communication with Paul a couple of times, he is great to deal with. Just listen to him as he is the expert by far.

The bettas, otos, cory, and I are so EXCITED!!!!

Rose

 

Here is what Paul sent me. I am going to try and get some better pics of the fat females too.

Hello Heidi-

Yeah they look pretty fat and healthy. How are you keeping them (tank size,
feeding regiment, etc.) ?

For breeding they like to have lots of plants to deposit eggs (plastic or
otherwise) like swordplants, anubias, or other broad-leafed plants. They
also seem to like tall skinny plants like vallisneria or some types of
crypts. Some water changes with water a little cooler than the tank during
a storm (low atmospheric pressure) may set them off as well, similar to
corydoras.

According to some reports they also like softer water that's slightly acidic
(6.0-7.0). You might want to try to lower the pH with something a little
more natural like a CO2 yeast reactor or something. For lowering
hardness, it might not be worth the trouble but some peat moss pellets in
the filter might help.

Let me know if you get any really good shots of a pregnant female close up.
The pictures you sent were somewhat blurry.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you're successful. GOOD LUCK!
~Paul

Below are acouple better pics of the ottos..

 

How are things going? Are they still little fatty Otos? The pictures are very good, it is too bad they won't give you a profile shot. Isn't just the pits to try to take pictures of the fish.

Rose

 

Sorry I haven't posted lately have had a breakout of URI here (upper respritory infection) As of today still no action. The females are still really big. I don't think they are going to ever release the eggs. I put them back in the bigger tank to see if they just like it there better. I was getting worried that they might not be getting enough of the algae that they so love in the smaller tank. I will let you all know if anything happens.


Heidi

 

Any updates??

 

Wow I forgot to update here, sorry guys.... My ottos went through a bad spell Found some dead in my 55 tank. I don't knowwhat did it but still have some left. Never did have any babies. Females are still fat but never see any eggs anywhere. They usually hide on me so will just have to wait and see what happens I guess.

Heidi

 

Mine otos never got that fat... but already given birth twice. The babies are soooo tiny that you can't hardly see them w/ your bare eyes. It looks like a speck of dust. I initially thought they were water fleas or something. When I turn on the light, I can see some swimming against the current. I took some pictures.. I dunno if they'll turn up.

 

If you have documented Otocinclus mating with pictures, you need to get in touch with Paul at otocinclusHe manages the website for these delightful little fish and keeps track of any matings done in captivity as it is VERY rare.

We would love to see any pictures you can share with us. It sounds wonderful.

Welcome to Fishlore.com We hope you browse, comment and question to your hearts content. We have members of all age groups and interests and from many nations.

Rose

 

Yeah, they're pretty awesome fishes. I didn't really make any documentation since I didn't think the fish would breed in my aquarium. This is my first aquarium.

Here's my tank spec and fishes/plants:
10gallon
Honey Red Gourami
2 Tiger barbs (used to be 3, but one got aggressive. Looking for a 30 gallon tank for them.)
2 Ottos
5 Ghost Shrimps (2 of them are full of eggs)
Java Moss
Java Fern


I had the ottos for ~3 months now. I fed them the alegy waffles before.. but they don't seem to eat it. They love the brown alegies on the glass tho.
Not long ago, I started feeding them cucumbers slices... and they love that stuff. I would see them two swimming around early in the morning bumping into each other and chasing each other around. So I keep feeding them the cucumber whenever they finish eating it. I saw some tiny ottos about 3mm long about a week later. I think they got sucked into my filter or got eaten... So now about 2 weeks later.. I saw around 20-30 super tiny specks of ottos... I think they're less than 1mm in length. On some of the slightly bigger one, I can see their two eyes and belly, everything else is transparent. They're hanging out at the java moss. Some are already cleaning the glass near the moss .
I dunno if the shrimps are gonna eat them or not... they seem to zap around pretty fast. I guess I'll let nature take its course.
I took some photo w/ my digital camera set at maximum quality with macro mode... dunno if they were too small to be captured or not. I'll post them when I can find my usb cable to transfer the pictures.

Oh yah.. I added a cloth (from a tshirt) to cover up the filter suction holes. And I put in a breeders net and moved a few in there (I think I did.. they're too small).

Here are the pictures... they're so tiny, they only show up like a dust. I'm suprise they're moving around cleaning my glass at that size. The tiger barb in that picture is less than 2 inches length. I think that's why there aren't any pictures of the otto flys on the web, since they're so tiny.

 

That is wonderful & amazing! They ARE so little! I LOVE otos and can't wait to see your updates as they grow. Congrats!
Sharon

 

Congratulations, that is indeed amazing. I will be most anxious to see more pictures of them as they develop.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Rose

 

After looking carefully at the tank, I think there are 50 to 100 of those little otto fries. They're all over the place, on the glass, on the heater, on the moss, gravel, etc. The strange thing is, most of them are still in the dust size like a few days ago. I only saw two or three that is a bit bigger. Attached a photo of a bigger one that stayed still for the picture . I also got a picture of the ghost shrimp... seems two of my ghost shrimps are carry eggs. Must be something in the water .

For size reference, the shrimp in the photo is almost 1 inch in length.
The fry in this photo is smaller than the egg of the ghost shrimp.

 

HI guys!!

Here is what happenned my wife decided to do a second tank (a plant only tank) so I got her a brand new 25g tank. She wanted to grow one of those red tiger lotus (and I got to say her lotos looks awsome) at one point in my other tank my zodiac loach spawned so with her permission I move the eggs to that tank to let the hatch since there are no fish in there. It eventually worked (I saved 4 only in my inexperience with those little loach) so now the algae in that tank started to go up a little more (well actually there was always alot) so I introduced my wife to the oto (cause she was cleaning EVERYTHING by hand in there like when you have your backyard garden) and she was extatic. She didnt find them cute but at least they where part of her clean up crew and that's what counts. Now those little bugged decided to spawn and there is eggs a couple of place in there and I know the loach lay there eggs at the bottom not on plants. Long story short what do you feed the fry for algae eater anyway cause now I have my wife in her baby fish crazr all over my back not wanting them to die (plus I love oto wouldnt mind having a few more in my own tank)

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

I don't know what to feed them, but if you truly have oto eggs, you're one of rare few who get them to even lay eggs, let alone complete spawning. You're doing something right already.
I would think that they would eat algae from the beginning, since it's such tiny stuff, but I'm not positive. I think we've had a successful breeder around here. Maybe they'll chime in.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and if they hatch, we're gonna want pics. It's so rare that we get to see the little guys, and you'll achieve instant fame around here if you post some.

 

Getting otos to spawn in capitivity is not an easy thing! If you have oto eggs, congratulations!!

Are you sure they're oto eggs and not something else, like snail eggs? Can you post a picture of them? I'm sure we'd all love to see them!

 

Ok will try to post a pick soon. But I have been studying and in sure there not snail eggs. But they seem to be going away one by one and its too soon for them to hatch... And I can't get those loach out of there I would have to remove all the plants...and my wife would kill me... Any idea how I could get my zodiac loack out of there those bugged are pretty small and REALLY fast.

 

Trap them? Put a long container on its side on the bottom with a shrimp pellet (or whatever their favorite food is) at the end, and when you get one, lift it out of the water. That's how I snare my Amano shrimp.

 

Thanks that sounds like a great idea!!

 

Are you sure they are oto eggs? How many otos do you have in the tank? How long have they been there? It's very rare to have them breed in captivity.

 

I'm sure they are...but there all gone now...I guess I had my chance I should have used an other tank to keep the eggs in... do you guys know if there seasonnal breeder, I mean if everything stays the same they SHOULD breed again right?

 

I'm sure they are...but there all gone now...I guess I had my chance I should have used an other tank to keep the eggs in... do you guys know if there seasonnal breeder, I mean if everything stays the same they SHOULD breed again right?

Congrats. I am not really sure about the seasonal part. But I imagine if you leave their tank as is, they breed again.
How many do you have together? I have 3 and want to get 3 more to try to get them to breed someday. I imagine if you google oto catfish you'll learn more about them than I can tell you.

 

I currently have 4 in the tank and couldnt even tell you which one is a male or female (can you even tell it on an oto???)

 

I currently have 4 in the tank and couldnt even tell you which one is a male or female (can you even tell it on an oto???)

I read that the females are suppose to be stockier/chubbier.

 

Baby Otos galore

I don’t know about how difficult it is to get Otos to spawn? I have lots of them!

Here are my recommendations:
You need at least six fish preferably more.
A well planted tank with driftwood
Very soft water KH 2-4 deg
pH vary between 6.5 – 7.8
Temp 79F
Lots of algae preferably brown surface algae which they eat first.

Set your tank up pH 7.8 KH 4 and get it green.
Add Otos
After they acclimate change water (5-10% a day) using RO and CO2 bringing pH down.
After about 2 weeks the fish will become very active at first at night and then during the daytime. At first the fish will dart around the tank by themselves. Eventually you will notice one fish chasing another. At this point you will begin to distinguish the sexes. The female will have a larger abdomen, the male slimmer.
Eventually you will see two or three males chasing a female around the tank.
When the female stops usually on the underside of a leaf, one of the males will mount her. Here is a picture of what it looks like:



They stay this way for some time maybe as long as 15 sec.
When the male get off the female moves on and 3-4 eggs will be on the underside of the leaf.
If you want to save the eggs cut off the leaf and transfer it to another tank or a fry net.
The eggs hatch in 48 hours at 79F
They are free swimming in another 48 hours.
I feed them algae from the drift wood and bits of algae pellets.

Here is someone else who is successful:


Actually Otos are really prolific. I have eggs all over my community tank and they breed side by side with my neon tetras.

 

Wow. I've been to otocinclus.com before. I just read that other link you posted. Incredicle pictures!

Breeding otos is definitely more on the rare side as far as fish breeding goes. I think the key here is to have a large group of them...

It's incredible that you got some to breed! Congrats!