Questions About Oto's

[Athena]

On Saturday I purchased 4 Otocinclus (funniest little fish I've seen in a while, with the way they cling onto the tank sides with their sucker mouths) to help combat a problematic tank (algae).

Well, it's amazing! After only being in the tank for 5 days my tank is looking beautiful again - they have cleaned up the tank walls, gravel and rock ornaments. Fast little workers, aren't they?

What I wanted to ask is what happens when they can't find any algae to eat? I've noticed that when I put algae wafers in all the other fish zoom over for a nibble but the Oto's ignore the wafers. Is that normal? I would have thought they'd have been first in the queue!

What do other people feed their Oto's and how often? Obviously, if they are being fed other foods then they might stop eating the tank algae, so I'm unsure of what I'm supposed to do.

Advice anyone, please?

Thanks - Athena

 

[rocknurworld2006]

On Saturday I purchased 4 Otocinclus (funniest little fish I've seen in a while, with the way they cling onto the tank sides with their sucker mouths) to help combat a problematic tank (algae).

Well, it's amazing! After only being in the tank for 5 days my tank is looking beautiful again - they have cleaned up the tank walls, gravel and rock ornaments. Fast little workers, aren't they?

What I wanted to ask is what happens when they can't find any algae to eat? I've noticed that when I put algae wafers in all the other fish zoom over for a nibble but the Oto's ignore the wafers. Is that normal? I would have thought they'd have been first in the queue!

What do other people feed their Oto's and how often? Obviously, if they are being fed other foods then they might stop eating the tank algae, so I'm unsure of what I'm supposed to do.

Advice anyone, please?

Thanks - Athena

yes this is normal they can be difficukt to feed, try the algae wafers at night. Try sme cucumber, zucchini

 

[Athena]

Thanks - so you think they might be inclined to eat wafers/cucumber etc once the lights go off? I'll give that a try (will have to spy on them and see what happens).

 

[fishncan]

I had the same problem with wafers. At first, all the other fish would get them. After a while, the oto's caught on and now they get their share. If you have a lot of fish, try splitting them and dropping in opposite sides of tank

 

[Athena]

I had the same problem with wafers. At first, all the other fish would get them. After a while, the oto's caught on and now they get their share. If you have a lot of fish, try splitting them and dropping in opposite sides of tank

Thanks - I guess I need to be a little more patient then. It's only been 5 days and maybe they haven't experienced algae wafers at the LFS. I'll try splitting one tonight and when I've managed to buy a cucumber at the weekend, I'll try them on that, too.

Cheers - Athena

 

[ALW]

Try putting a piece of Courgette in after you turn the lights out and see if this works! Cucumber isnt really nutritional as it is mainly water. If Courgettes dont work try Carrots, Sweet Potato, Melon or Celery.

 

[KraKen]

Before I had algae all my otos would eat was zuchini(courgette) and occasionally spinach. I also noticed that they like the food better when you microvave it with garlic.

 

[Thirdfloor]

breaking the algae wafers into smaller pieces and scattering them throughout the tank certainly does help to ensure that all the fish can find a little piece. Just like cutting a pizza into slices so everyone gets a piece