Otocinclus breeding

JuiceBox52 · Apr 1, 2020

So during this quarantine id like to try a new breeding project. Is otocinclus able to be bred in an aquarium? A 55g and 10g? Would they need to be species only? Would snails eat their eggs? Info please!

Colin_T · Apr 1, 2020

a 2 foot long tank is fine.
make sure tank has been set up for a few months and has lots of algae, driftwood and plants.
single species tank is best for breeding any fish to prevent other fish eating the eggs.
all snails will eat any fish eggs they find.

JuiceBox52 · Apr 2, 2020

Colin_T said:
a 2 foot long tank is fine.
make sure tank has been set up for a few months and has lots of algae, driftwood and plants.
single species tank is best for breeding any fish to prevent other fish eating the eggs.
all snails will eat any fish eggs they find.

I have 8 fish would that be enough?

Colin_T · Apr 2, 2020

Byron · Apr 2, 2020

I agree. Several years ago I had three otos in my 90g tank which was very heavily planted. Because of the plants, there were times I never saw the otos. After some time, probably a year or more, I was sitting in front of the tank one day and saw an oto, so I decided to sit quietly and see if I could spot all of them. A moving oto will usually be noticed. There were five of them, and two were about 1/4 inch shorter than the other three. Obviously two of the three had spawned a few months previously, and two eggs had escaped being eaten by the fish and were able to graze food and grow.

GLAB · May 22, 2020

I have recently restarted a 30 gallon 35 inch long tank and added 7 Otocinclus after initial tank cycling. It is a planted tank with healthy plant growth and provides a good food source for the Oto's. I find that in the morning the Oto's have very active mating ritual activities. I have yet to find eggs, as I think they are a bit too young. One of the females is finally showing a larger belly and may start producing eggs. I live in Arizona and the water is hard and high pH which seems contrary to the conditions they would prefer.

JuiceBox52 · May 22, 2020

GLAB said:
I have recently restarted a 30 gallon 35 inch long tank and added 7 Otocinclus after initial tank cycling. It is a planted tank with healthy plant growth and provides a good food source for the Oto's. I find that in the morning the Oto's have very active mating ritual activities. I have yet to find eggs, as I think they are a bit too young. One of the females is finally showing a larger belly and may start producing eggs. I live in Arizona and the water is hard and high pH which seems contrary to the conditions they would prefer.
View attachment 104812

I believe in a hard GH the eggs will not develop. Sort of like tetras, most of which need a 0 GH for the eggs to develop. I could be wrong though

GLAB · Jun 1, 2020

Well, today I found 3 eggs on top of a leaf. See attached photo. I guess I will get to see if they will develop in the hard and alkaline waters of northern Arizona.

GLAB · Jun 8, 2020

The breeding action has continued in the tank with eggs found on the valisneria as well as ludwigia.
Yesterday morning I spotted a live Oto fry eating on one of the big rocks I have in the tank. Very exciting to see the eggs are hatching!

My water is sourced from a well and the PH is approx 8.1 and very hard (approx. 500 mg/L) so apparently Oto's are not too sensitive to high PH or hard water. TDS is running about 300.