Otos And Rosy Barbs

[celaeno]

i tried putting 2 of my 4 otos from the 10g to my 20g, and see if they would do well with the rosy barbs and krib.
turned out to be a bad idea as the barbs thought any fish smaller than them were food and tried to eat the poor little otos!
so now i have to somehow grow algae to feed my otos. this experience has led me to several questions:

1. is a 5500k daylight 9w compact fluorescent bulb going to be good for growing algae in a 10g?

2. should i feed zucchini even when there's a supply of algae in the tank? (i found that my otos usually ignore the zucchini and algae wafers.)

3. what algae eater can i get that wouldn't be picked on by the barbs? i know it must be have a larger than 2.5" adult length. i'd get a bristlenose, but would a 20g long tank be too small for them? do they also require wood in their diet to survive?

thanks in advance

 

[celaeno]

bump

mods, please move this to the plecos section if you think it goes there. thanks

 

[Nim]

I have ottos with rosy barbs and no problems at all but then again rosy barbs can be known to have strange attitudes... they even go around challanging african cichlids and red tailed sharks and then they have to keep running around the tank in fear of bieng torn apart when come face to face with either of these.

One question that intrigues me is that most people want to keep algae away from their tanks and you seem to be wanting it to feed your ottos and plecs People usually do the other way round. Once you get algae (firstly, there are a zillion types of algae and ottos and plecs only feed on a very limited 3-4 types) it may become very difficult to get rid of and you cannot really have control on its growth or undergrowth or overgrowth. Technically, algae exists in every mature tank and ottos are good enough to find what they need. Mine dont touch algae flakes either but sometimes do go after catfish tablets and tetra prima. So it might be worth trying different things out but with the likes of rosy barbs in the tank, it is very unlikely that they will be able to get hold of any food but they can still find their daily needs.

Nim