Bought 4X Otto Cory

[Gr44]

Hi all,

I bought 4 x Otto Corydoras for my fish tank yesterday afternoon, I added them around 6pm I think after nearly 2 hours of drip acclimitization (sp?).

I left the lights off last night and covered the tank, I had a coupld of peeks in the evening and counted all 4 upto about 12am, all 4 were feeding on algae.

Woke up this morning around 9am and one was just laying on the bottom of the tank, unable to move with what looked like a small wound to it's stomach and... almost cotton wool coming from it? He was near some bogwood that has a raised up little lump coming from the sand.

The tank has had fish for around 2 months, I did a fishless cycle before hand (3months) and it is stocked with 14x Glowlight Tetra, 6x Panda Cory. The tank is 600mm x 300mm x 300mm (55L ish)

I have 2 filters, a Fluval U3 and a 101F - so plently of filtration.

The tank has a powerful airstone, temperture is around 25.5*c but does vary a little (tested with an infrared thermometer)

Ammonia, Nitrite = 0. Nitrate is around 20-30ppm.

The tank has had weekly changes without fail always around 35-40% mark.

pH is around 7.9 now (tap is 8.2 but I've been mixing a little RO in to keep below 8) very hard water without RO.

All other fish seem to be acting normally.

This is the first fish I've lost in my fish keeping days (short though they are!) and I just want to check it is (hopefully) down to stress and nothing more?

One other thing to note is the tetra do seem to scare the new Otto's a little... they swim off when the tetra get near etc.

Thanks,

Sean

 

[minxfishy]

Otocinclus are notoriously sensitive and often dont last long after introduction into new tanks, yours is a little newly set up for their long term health as they will primarily feed on algae and nothing else really, I cant even get mine to eat algae wafters, so you will need to have a constant source of algae for them. The one that died, may well have been stressed/harrassed and died and probably munched on a little by the other fish, wasnt well when you bought it, could have been a number of factors, keep an eye on the others, but dont be too downhearted if one by one they disappear, its unfortunately fairly normal. Some people have no problems with them, others give up as no matter how many times they try, they seem to not do well in their tanks.

 

[Ben M]

otto's and corydoras are totally different fish. the otto, or otocinclus catfish, is a sucker mouth catfish, that eats primarily algae. but corydoras catfish, are not a sucker mouth catfish, and they sift through the substrate looking for food. i'm guessing that you have otocinclus, and not corydoras, because you said that they were eating the algae. personally, i have had no problem with otto's, but apparently they are often very unhealthy when you buy them in the fish shop, so are often dying by the time you put them in your tank. don't get too bothered if they all die, as they will have been practically starving when you bought them. but, you might only lose 1, and the others may be fine. try feeding them blanched shelled peas and courgette, and algae wafers.

cheers

 

[Gr44]

I had quite a lot of algae on my plants etc and they have eaten about 50% of what was visible so they still have a fair bit of food for the moment. An aweful lot of food though so I think you may be right, they wern't feed enough at the LFS.

I placed an algae wafer in earlier and they had a little nibble on those as well.

2 of them appear to be quite active while one is looking a little bit sedate

Thanks for the feedback, I had read they were very sensitive fish but I was surprised to find one has passed so quickly

Also, you are correct on the Otto front, getting confused with my Panda Cory's!!

These are indeed the otocinclus you said!

 

[Big_eyes]

What fish have you got them in with? just incase.

 

[Gr44]

14x Glowlight Tetra
6 x Panda Cory

+ now 3 x Otto's

 

[fishyfeet]

ottos are very fickle, ive had about a dozen, and indeed some have died with in days of putting them in the tank, other last maybe a year or so, they are quite sensitive and live mainly on the bugs on algae rather than algae itself, fish shops tend not to have any algae build up, so they are usually starved and stressed by the time you get them home. Youll be lucky if any of them live more than six months. di