Otos

[axemanchris]

I purchased a trio of adorable little Otos today. I have heard they can be
quite delicate, so I would love any suggestions on how to keep them healthy
& happy. They are currently residing in a sparsely planted 50 gal tank with
3 clown loaches, 1 spotted raphael catfish, 4 red wagtail platies & a baby
guppy.

Thanks,

Jacqui

[Billy]

-- John Wayne
"axemanchris" > wrote in message
. ..
|I purchased a trio of adorable little Otos today. I have heard they
can be
| quite delicate, so I would love any suggestions on how to keep them
healthy
| & happy. They are currently residing in a sparsely planted 50 gal
tank with
| 3 clown loaches, 1 spotted raphael catfish, 4 red wagtail platies &
a baby
| guppy.


IME, buy several more than you need, because you're going to lose
some. The ones that make it through the first 2 weeks will be with
you for years.:)


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[LLoyd]

increase you illuminesense so that you create an abundance of algae
for them to feast on. anything from allowing direct sunlight to hit the
tank, to just keeping your light strip on 24/7 for a week or 2 shoud
do it.

-Lloyd


"axemanchris" > wrote in message
. ..
> I purchased a trio of adorable little Otos today. I have heard they can
be
> quite delicate, so I would love any suggestions on how to keep them
healthy
> & happy. They are currently residing in a sparsely planted 50 gal tank
with
> 3 clown loaches, 1 spotted raphael catfish, 4 red wagtail platies & a baby
> guppy.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jacqui
>
>

[Mean_Chlorine]

On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 19:40:07 -0400, "axemanchris"
> wrote:

>I purchased a trio of adorable little Otos today. I have heard they can be
>quite delicate, so I would love any suggestions on how to keep them healthy
>& happy.

Some may die the first weeks just because they can't adjust, but
otherwise the biggest problem with otos is feeding them. IMO
starvation is probably the most common cause of death for them,
followed by dropsy from eating too fatty food.
Anything you can do to supply food to them will greatly enhance their
chances. Given your tankmates, who'll outcompete the rather shy otos
for most kinds of food, I'd say the best way to get food to the otos
would probably be to place veggies (blanched brussel sprout, salad
leaves, zucchini slices, split green peas...) in the tank. Leave the
veggies in for atleast 24 hours: often otos wont touch veggies until
they start to go mushy and decompose.

If you can find some other way of supplying them with food, use that
too. Even if your tank is full of algae, your otos will likely need
supplementary feeding, as they don't eat all kinds of algae.

Oh, and there is another reason to supply food to otos: some, but not
all, otos will start to attack, and sometimes kill, fish rather than
starve to death.