Getting Algae To Grow

[tenke56]

I have some otto's in my tank and I am worried that they are running out of food. How can I get algae to grow so they don't have to starve if they don't switch to other types of food?

 

[Nicolas]

You can feed them Hikari Algae wafers. Do you have any live plants? There's lots of little Algae and other small things that they eat on live plants.

Usually trying to encourage Algae growth isn't a good thing. For one you need high Nitrates among other things including Phosphates.

 

[tenke56]

I did not think of the bad part of algae. I guess I could always try to get them to eat algae wafers. Thanks for the reply. Guess I needed the kick to the head to remember this.

 

[backtotropical]

I agree with Nicolas.

You shouldn't rely purely on algae growing in your tank to feed them. You must supplement the algae with other prepared foods, such as algae wafers. Your LFS should sell them. Any other algae or vegetable based fish food would also be good.

Also, the Ottos would appreciate a slice of cucumber every now and again. They'd go mad for it!!

Cheers

BTT

 

[Corleone]

My otos were pretty finicky to eat at first, and still are sometimes. Rather than encouraging algae growth in the tank, you can try to encourage it jars in the windowsill. It worked for me, and kept my otos fed until they finally started eating cucumber.

 

[Colin_T]

As what everyone else has said about adding other types of food, but if you want to grow algae just increase the light and add some liquid iron plant fertiliser. Have the lights on for up to 16 hours per day and you should get some algae growing pretty quickly. If you have the lights towards the back of the tank then most of the algae will grow on the back and sides and there will be less of it on the front glass.
The other thing you can do is put some rocks in a bucket of water out in the sun. After a few weeks the rocks will be covered in algae and you can put them in the tank. If you have a couple of rocks then one can be out in the sun and the other can be in the tank.