Otocinclus Affinis

[Themuleous]

Hi All,

Just wanted to make a small post re the wonder of ottos (Otocinclus affinis). Since changing my main tank over to plants Ive seen a steady increase in diatoms, and decided that the only thing was to get some ottos, since I've always like them and thought they are a nice little, hard working fish. I also lost a few fish recently so thought I would replace them.

Anyway I picked up 5 ottos for £6 from the Oxford Maidenhead Aquatics, which I have to say is a complete bargain. They aren't the largest of fish but Ive never had any problems with the other fish Ive got from there so fully expect them to be fine.

Anyway added them to the tank last night, and woke up this morning to find the tank almost completely clear of diatoms! The little b-e-a-uties had cleared it all up in just one night!

Just thought I would post a thread to rave a bit about them, and to let other people know of their abilities.

I do have one question though, once they've munched all the algae do they need feeding at all or are they help just living off what they can find around the tank? I see Amano's tanks full of them, and I only have 5, but just thought I would ask.

Just a small fact to end with, I understand that they are all wild caught fish as they have yet to be bred in captivity. Keeping wild caught fish is something I not a fan of, but the fish seem happy enough in my tank

Sam

 

[Themuleous]

Oh right, well I got told that by someone who should know, so who knows! Perhaps they are just difficult to breed commercially hence its cheaper to get wild ones? Who knows.

Ill give the algae wafers a try and see what happens. Do you think I have to many in my 20g? I could spread them out amongst my thanks if necessary.

Thanks FKNM

Sam

 

[Bloo]

I'm sure they are great, but of the 5 or 6 I started with (in my mature planted tank), I now only have 1 left in less than a year
(edit: they randomly dropped off at odd intervals - with no particular pattern or sign or cause of death).
And apart from a bamboo shrimp (that had problems moulting), these are the only chaps that have died during this time. Carmen's obviously had great success breeding them but she has much softer water with a much lower pH - so that might very well be what they really want.

Fantastic deal you got them at though - think I paid like £3 each for mine

 

[Themuleous]

Bloo - that's not so good, I'll keep an eye on mine and see what happens. Now that Ive added the CO2 to the main tank, the pH is down near 6.6 so hopefully that'll help, although the GH is quite high at 10/11ish ( just cant seem to get it down, despite using RO/tap water mix to give me GH of 4ish when I add it to the tank! darn and blast! )

And yeh bargain price, the other shop I go to has them at 5quid for one! But they are bigger fish so there might be less mortality etc, will wait and see.

FKNM - Yeh Ive read that conflicting advice! Well Ive got them now, and will see what happens, if they don't take to the wafers Ill perhaps move them around. The tank is well over filtered so water quality isn't a problem, but guess feeding might be.

Thanks you two

Sam

EDIT - just read Carmen's post re breeding them. Very interesting, shes achieved what even the Chinese cant! And she got a second load of eggs so got a right little 'farm' running.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Sam,

I've got 3 Otto's in my 130Ltr tank and they all seem to be doing fine (never seen any signs of breeding though).
Occasionally I supplement their diet with some green veg, but only a couple of times a month.

I've had some success with cooked garden peas (outter shell removed), cucumber and courgette, just put a piece in a cup of
boiling water for a couple of mins then into the tank ... you'll probably need to weigh it down !

The only problem I've had with this is that my gourami's get there first and love it .
The male thinks it's his own personal banquette ! However at night I usually see the Otto's move in to feed, often hanging onto the cucumber for hours.


Al

.

 

[Themuleous]

Interesting, Cheers Al I'll give that a try too

 

[diburning]

I have 1 otto in a 10 gallon tank and its doing nothing... I have tons of green algae and they aren't eating them... My diatoms are growing under the sand so my oto can't get to them until they start growing above the sand.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I have 1 otto in a 10 gallon tank and its doing nothing... I have tons of green algae and they aren't eating them... My diatoms are growing under the sand so my oto can't get to them until they start growing above the sand.

If you have tons of green algae and diatoms in your tank a single otto isnt going to make a noticable difference, it could be eating it's heart out and you wouldn't see any change.

Far better tackle the root cause of your algae problem.

A group of algae eating fish & shrimp will help keep algae in check (not cure it totally).

I have a total of 6 Otto's and usually move them between tanks as required, but if I need them for 'algae control' I always use at 3 or 4 in a 20 Gal tank, then move them back to the larger tank when the job is done. I also use them in conjunction with a group of algae eating shrimp.

I have one 15 Gal tank just for growing plants and often have 3 otto's and 2 molly's (another good algae eating fish) in there ..... I hardly ever see algae in that tank.

 

[craynerd]

Sam , i am with Bloo.

I had 4 ottos in my tank a while ago with 15 cardinals and 15 different shrimp.

Out of the whole lot i only lost 1 shrimp but all 4 ottos.

They are a crazy fish, they just dropped off one by one with no warning except one who did seem to become ill before dieing.

Anyway, what i am saying is good luck with them but if they do die, it seems normal for the species. When mine died i did lots of research and found that they often just die for no reason.

Anyway, good luck and yes agree 100% fantastic algae eater.

I am yet to decided if i am going to have any in my next tank. I think amano shrimp do an "as good" or better job and they are more stable.

Chris

 

[Themuleous]

Just little update, the other anubais are fine no damage to the stems/rhizome, although some of the leaves are rotting but thats probably other things, so the other one probably got munched due to being rotten anyway and the ottos eating the rotten bit rather than the live plant.

Anyway, have decided I dont like anubais, they just never do very well for me, so probably going to replace them with a moss or pellia in the main tank and see how that looks.

Sam

 

[dave_m13]

Hi Sam

You go to the Oxford Maidenhead aquatics, is it quite a good shop?
I usually go to the ones in Northampton and they have always been pretty good, just thought it would be good to see what its like.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Waterloo Kid]

I raised some otto fry a couple of years back. Check out these two posts.

Link 1

Link 2

I'm not sure how many ottos I have left. I can loose them for months only for them to reappear again all of a sudden. Quite hard to keep track of a small secretive fish like these in a 400 litre planted tank!

WK

 

[lljdma06]

Just little update, the other anubais are fine no damage to the stems/rhizome, although some of the leaves are rotting but thats probably other things, so the other one probably got munched due to being rotten anyway and the ottos eating the rotten bit rather than the live plant.

Anyway, have decided I dont like anubais, they just never do very well for me, so probably going to replace them with a moss or pellia in the main tank and see how that looks.

Sam

These are the days when I wish I lived in the UK. I would totally take your anubias. I love mine, they're great plants. Little troupers they are. I divided my original nana into 4 plants and all are growing very well. Now, if only I could grow glosso or stop greenwater.

As far as otos are concerned, I haven't had much success with them, though I've only tried them once. They randomnly died. It is said that they often are internally damaged when they are caught. The fish that are damaged in this way don't last more than a few weeks in the tank, as was the case with two of mine. They would eat, but were unable to digest and they starved to death. The third lasted for about 3-4 months and was gaining weight, but then it just died. Totally random. They are excellent algae eaters, however, and if I cannot get American flag fish, I will use otos, since I hate snails and feel the constant need to eat the shrimp .

 

[Themuleous]

Well if you lived in the UK you could certainly have my anubias, I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, they never look very good. That said, Ive yet to grow them in an EI tank so perhaps that's my downfall, who knows. Also I guess Ive had great success with other stuff instead. The sags in both my main and nano tanks are doing great so that's something and the HC has grown well in the nano, just decided to have a change now.

Will keep an eye on the ottos, let hope some of them survive!

Sam

 

[ChrisP]

Thats a nice dea you got there, I paid way more than that a while back. Unfortunatly I had the same problem I started out with around 6 of them and they just randomly died with no signs of illness within about 6 months.