Otto's Feeding Off Discus Body!

[three-fingers]

I dont put in any algae wafers in as i thought the 2 dry,2 frozen plus plants/algae etc was ok for them already.

like you say if i put wafers in the discus and angels would attack them

Which, other than temperature preferences differences, is why I never recommend they be kept together.

Do you think the otos would be attacking the discus if they weren't hungry?

Specialised sucker-mouth fish species often need their own food.

They will barely get any dry or frozen food (which doesn't quite suit their dietary needs anyway), your tank would look horrible if there was enough algae to keep a group of otos well-fed, and the plants would only ever negatively impact on their feeding, by reducing the algae growing in the tank.

Remember to research any fish fully at least a little before purchase, and at the very least, immediately after purchase. I can only assume you thought it was OK because the lfs staff advised you so, which should a lesson to you .

I'm sure you researched your discus at least a little before you spent money on them, just because they are cheaper doesn't really make it fair to just keep otos in that tank without researching them a bit.

Google search "otocinclus" lots of useful results.

Quotes from top page on google search (otocinclus.com):

Since otocinclus are mainly herbivores they need massive quantities of greens to keep them healthy

Otocinclus are herbivores and they need to be constantly grazing on green matter in order to survive

Most tanks do not have enough algae to sustain a group of otocinclus so it is up to the fish keeper to provide supplemental food on a consistent basis.

Well there have been a few reports of otocinclus which attack slow moving flat-bodied fish, such as discuss, or angelfish. It must be mentioned that sometimes otocinclus are slightly territorial with each other, but they would most likely never attack another fish. I think this behaviour could mean that the otocinclus is very hungry and trying to latch onto any surface that may have food, be it an organic surface or non-organic

Look on fishbase.com (best site for scientific data on fish in the wild) and you'll find that they naturally inhabit waters of 20°C - 25°C, I'm sure your discus tank must be fairly higher than this.

Otos are by no means hard to keep IMO, they just don't slot into every community tank, you need to check their needs first. Just like other fish, such as hillstream loaches, which are commonly sold as coldwater algae eaters but really aren't suited to most tanks.

Just because your fish are surviving and even active doesn't mean they are thriving, you cant ask a fish how it's doing or look at facial expressions, and without being fairly experienced with a certain type of fish it can be hard to tell how well it's doing.

Which, again, is why you need to research all the animals you purchase.

 

[theshadowinc]

Iv been watching the tank for the past 15 mins and its only been the one. at the min he is captured in the net, but still in the tank.

I will say with experience in this area that it doesn't matter any fish that eats the slime coat is done and needs rehoming, that doesn't go for just 1 it goes for all of them. I use to keep SAE, problem I ran into later on was the SAE would come to the top of the tank for bloodworm feedings etc, it got some slime coat one day and that was the end of that fish always eating at the slime coat I had to GIVE it back to the lfs I baught it from, shortly after that another did it, i just got rid of them all and went with Ottos myself. Ottos with any discus fish is finiky, once any fish eats that slime coat you have to get rid of them, usually with Ottos its you see white spots on the fish, thats a sign you need to get rid of them. Having your fish in a planted tank i would understand your point of view a little better than most that don't keep discus in planted tanks. The ones that keep other fish in with out discus we are a seperate crowd and we still follow rules. If it was me in my tank I would get rid of the ottos and try another batch of them from somewhere else, if it happens again maybe look at a BristleNose sucker, although its different algue it eats, I have had luck with them and they work well in the tank, only issue again is the Discus picked on mine till it was dead. Discus there isn't alot you can put in with them but I guess a rule of thumb for Ottos is about 1 per fish, so if you have only 4-5 discus lets say no more than 4 ottos, I have 4 discus and only 3 ottos but my tank is a #40## jungle and havn't noticed any issues yet cross fingers and knocking on wood. (I also feed my ottos daily)