Dying Ottos

[cornishgiant]

Hi All,

Last Monday I bought 4 Ottos for my Aqua One 62OT which contains plants/wood, 6 diamond tetras and 8 black phantom tetras.

I have just had to fish out the 3rd dead ottos this morning, meaning I am now down to 1.

What is going wrong? The tetras are loving it!

I do twice weekly 15-22.5% water changes and yesterday (on last water change) the Ammonia was 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 15. The tank has now been running for 3 1/2 weeks.

All help gratefully received.

 

[diademhill]

The tank has now been running for 3 1/2 weeks.

All help gratefully received.

If there has been any nitrite since the ottos arrived it will have damaged them & I expect there is not enough food for them in such a new tank. IME they eat diatoms & some green algae.
I, personally would never put ottos in to a new, immature, not yet stable tank. In fact I would not add any more fish for a few weeks at least - let the tank stabilise on a normal weekly water change regime before you consider any more fish.
Can you get a piece of decor from an established tank to give your remaining ottos a feed?

Sue

 

[soritan]

Ottos also have a nasty habit of dying for no obvious reason. I'm sure you've already been here, but here's a site that talks about ottos in good detail:

http/www.otocinclus.com
and their very good article talking about new ottos: http/otocinclus.com/newoto.html

I've been struggling with them, myself. I have one otto in my tank whose name is a complete sentance, "Not dead yet".

Have you been suplimenting their diet with veggies? Is there a fair amount of visable algae?

 

[cornishgiant]

Yeah, there was algae, thats why I got them I have been throwing in algae wafers too and they don't touch them.

Might try some cucumber

 

[Arfie]

Yeah, there was algae, thats why I got them I have been throwing in algae wafers too and they don't touch them.

Might try some cucumber

Mine eat algea wafers, but the cucumber is the best bet, in fact I use courgette (zuccini) and they love it.

If you buy any more ottos (which you should, but not for a while) check they have little bulging bellies, if they don't, don't buy them.

Arfie

 

[cornishgiant]

Algae wafer removed, courgette addedd!