Lifespan of ottocinculus

[David M. Moore]

I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live in
an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die off
within 6 months to a year.

My first reaction would be maybe I'm just bad at keeping fish...if it
weren't for the fact that I have a silver dollar that will be 21 in
December, and a blue gourami that will be 16 about the same time. Both in
the same tank as the ottos. Other tankmates are rainbow sharks, tiger
barbs, a betta, a few cory cats, and some random tetras, all at least three
years old. The tank stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees and a 7.0 ph,
gets regular water changes, blah blah blah, all the usual stuff. And I
know its not a case of ottos making fine hors devours for one of the
occupants...I find dead bodies.

Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info would
be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)


David

[Happy'Cam'per]

They're sensitive we critters, both of mine just made it past the 6 month
mark and died...;(
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

"David M. Moore" > wrote in message
30...
> I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live
in
> an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die
off
> within 6 months to a year.
>
> My first reaction would be maybe I'm just bad at keeping fish...if it
> weren't for the fact that I have a silver dollar that will be 21 in
> December, and a blue gourami that will be 16 about the same time. Both in
> the same tank as the ottos. Other tankmates are rainbow sharks, tiger
> barbs, a betta, a few cory cats, and some random tetras, all at least
three
> years old. The tank stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees and a 7.0 ph,
> gets regular water changes, blah blah blah, all the usual stuff. And I
> know its not a case of ottos making fine hors devours for one of the
> occupants...I find dead bodies.
>
> Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info
would
> be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)
>
>
> David

[Harry Muscle]

"David M. Moore" > wrote in message
30...
> I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live
in
> an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die
off
> within 6 months to a year.
>
> My first reaction would be maybe I'm just bad at keeping fish...if it
> weren't for the fact that I have a silver dollar that will be 21 in
> December, and a blue gourami that will be 16 about the same time. Both in
> the same tank as the ottos. Other tankmates are rainbow sharks, tiger
> barbs, a betta, a few cory cats, and some random tetras, all at least
three
> years old. The tank stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees and a 7.0 ph,
> gets regular water changes, blah blah blah, all the usual stuff. And I
> know its not a case of ottos making fine hors devours for one of the
> occupants...I find dead bodies.
>
> Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info
would
> be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)
>
>
> David

They might be getting picked on, and die from the stress. Whoever picked on
them, just might not be interested in eating them afterwards. Also, just
cause the environment is prefect to keep other fish healthy and happy for a
long long time, doesn't mean it's perfect for otttos.

Harry

[RedForeman ©®]

|| I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally
|| live in an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and
|| seem to die off within 6 months to a year.

The sad part is, you'll probably purchase old otos, then get them home and
they either die of osmotic shock, or can't acclimate, and if they DO
acclimate, they die when they hit 6mo or so... Can't put a number on it,
not sure of their lifespan, but I've had 5 for over 1 year, had an
accidental spawning, 1 more showed up, then I lost one the other day... it
all balances out somehow....

--
| RedForeman ©® fabricator and creator of the ratbike streetfighter!!!
| ==========================
| 2003 TRX450ES
| 1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
| '98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
| ==========================
| ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
|| ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º> ·´¯`·. , .·´¯`·.. ><((((º>
| for any questions you may have....
is that better??

[Kevin]

Red's last line I think hit it just on point. I have 2 tanks one at office
(a 5 g) and one at home (a 15 g). I put 6 in my home tank and 3 of them
died within a month. Now, only 3 remain. In my office tank I put 2 and 1
died within a week or so. At least for my tanks, the balance is 1 for every
5 gallons.



"RedForeman ©®" > wrote in message
...
> || I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally
> || live in an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and
> || seem to die off within 6 months to a year.
>
> The sad part is, you'll probably purchase old otos, then get them home and
> they either die of osmotic shock, or can't acclimate, and if they DO
> acclimate, they die when they hit 6mo or so... Can't put a number on it,
> not sure of their lifespan, but I've had 5 for over 1 year, had an
> accidental spawning, 1 more showed up, then I lost one the other day... it
> all balances out somehow....
>
> --
> | RedForeman ©® fabricator and creator of the ratbike streetfighter!!!
> | ==========================
> | 2003 TRX450ES
> | 1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
> | '98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
> | ==========================
> | ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
> || ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º> ·´¯`·. , .·´¯`·.. ><((((º>
> | for any questions you may have....
> is that better??
>
>

[Andy Hill]

"David M. Moore" > wrote:
>I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live in
>an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die off
>within 6 months to a year.
>
>My first reaction would be maybe I'm just bad at keeping fish...if it
>weren't for the fact that I have a silver dollar that will be 21 in
>December, and a blue gourami that will be 16 about the same time. Both in
>the same tank as the ottos. Other tankmates are rainbow sharks, tiger
>barbs, a betta, a few cory cats, and some random tetras, all at least three
>years old. The tank stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees and a 7.0 ph,
>gets regular water changes, blah blah blah, all the usual stuff. And I
>know its not a case of ottos making fine hors devours for one of the
>occupants...I find dead bodies.
>
>Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info would
>be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)
>
>
Not sure what the ultimate life is, but I've got four that have been in the tank
for nearly five years now. Started out with three more than that -- lost a
couple right away (within a week or so), and lost another a couple of years ago.

Don't know what my magic formula is...the tank's on the alkaline side (8-ish),
and I don't bother to mess with the algae except for scraping the viewing
surfaces. Nitrates rarely rise above 20ppm (between watering the house plants
and the regular gravel vaccing, the water gets changed pretty regularly).

[Phil]

they poison these fish to make them easier to catch
many die in the river
many die at the lfs
many die soon after you get them into your new tank
who knows what level of poisoning your otto has already endured
who knows if it effects the life span of the fish, I'd say most probably

[MarAzul]

"Phil" > wrote in message
...
> they poison these fish to make them easier to catch
> many die in the river
> many die at the lfs
> many die soon after you get them into your new tank
> who knows what level of poisoning your otto has already endured
> who knows if it effects the life span of the fish, I'd say most probably
>
>

Interesting.. what's your reference for that?

Mar
--------------------------------------------------
If the poodle got loose, I figured I could take it. I was armed.
- Laurell K. Hamilton from the Anita Blake series

[nuchumYussel]

"Phil" > wrote in message >...
> they poison these fish to make them easier to catch
> many die in the river
> many die at the lfs
> many die soon after you get them into your new tank
> who knows what level of poisoning your otto has already endured
> who knows if it effects the life span of the fish, I'd say most probably

What is this information based on?

Evan Davis

[Mean_Chlorine]

"David M. Moore" > wrote in message >...
> I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live in
> an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die off
> within 6 months to a year.

"Normally", as in average survival in average aquaria, I'd say 6
months to a year is probably right.

That's not their actual lifespan. http://www.fischaltersliste.de/ has
two Otocinclus listed, and although they're pretty much guaranteed to
be misidentified as to species, they're probably at least Otocinclus -
and they're 2.5 and 5 years (and still alive) respectively.

> Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info would
> be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)

Any number of things kills otos, but in my experience there's two
things which do them in: starvation and fatty food.

Otocinclus are algae eaters, but they don't eat all kinds of algae,
and their mouths are not capable of taking on long or coarse algae (or
plants), so the feature which makes them suitable for planted aquaria
can also have them starving to death in an aquarium with lots of
visible algae.
They're also quite slow on the food and tend to lose out if there are
more voracious fish in the tank, especially initially, before they've
realized that the stuff the other fish are gulping down is, in fact,
edible. It took me two weeks to get my Otocinclus cf flexilis to grow
comfortable with replacement foods, and they didn't have to compete
with any other fish during that time.

Basically, if your oto doesn't have a nice convex "beerbelly", then
it's starving and probably not long for this world.

Another factor is bad food. Otos are herbivores, and their diet should
reflect that, or they're likely to contract dropsy (just like other
herbivorous fish are if fed the wrong food).

IME, if one makes sure they get enough to eat, and feed them
predominantly vegetable matter (blanched brussel sprouts, zucchini,
spirulina pellets...), then they're quite hardy.
Basically, IMO one need to remember that they're loricariid catfish,
and treat them like one would herbivorous Plecos, and they'll be fine.

Well, there is one factor more. I've heard from several sources that
sometimes cyanide is used in their capture. This has always seemed odd
to me, but if it is true, then one would expect otos to get white
feces and die from starvation within a month of capture. Just like
many salt-water fish captured with cyanide do.

The bottom line is that otos are wonderful little fish, and my
personal favourite Loricariids, but if all you want is a hardy little
something to eat algae, then you may be better off with something
hardier, like siamese algae eaters or Ancistrus.

> David

[Phil]

when I bought mine I researched them and it was a recurring comment on quite
a few web pages
try googling or something

[Eric Schreiber]

David M. Moore wrote:

> I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally
> live in an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and
> seem to die off within 6 months to a year.

First off, for many aquarists, otocinclus cats have a high early
mortality rate. I've found that about half the one's I've bought ahve
died within a week or two.

That said, back in December 2002, I bought eight otos for my heavily
planted 20 gallon tank. As far as I could tell, they all died, since I
could never find them. But, I rarely found any bodies, either.

About two months ago, two of them reappeared, and seem to be in fine
form. So at least some otos will live at least 19 months.


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

[D&M]

Got a bakers dozen of them when I first started out in the aquaria. They
lived great lived until their tankmates grew to sized where they begun to
look like food, or so I suspected. two just mysteriously disappeared.
That meant new tanks, smaller fish stayed in the smaller tank, larger fish
into the new home.

After the move, a month later one just upped and died for no reason, and
just the other day, a dwarf puffer beat one up bad enough to kill it. Other
than that, I've found them to be very tough little fish for their size.
Still have a nice little school of them.

"David M. Moore" > wrote in message
30...
> I've got a question here about ottocats. How long do they normally live
in
> an aquarium? They don't seem to last very long for me, and seem to die
off
> within 6 months to a year.
>
> My first reaction would be maybe I'm just bad at keeping fish...if it
> weren't for the fact that I have a silver dollar that will be 21 in
> December, and a blue gourami that will be 16 about the same time. Both in
> the same tank as the ottos. Other tankmates are rainbow sharks, tiger
> barbs, a betta, a few cory cats, and some random tetras, all at least
three
> years old. The tank stays at a fairly constant 75 degrees and a 7.0 ph,
> gets regular water changes, blah blah blah, all the usual stuff. And I
> know its not a case of ottos making fine hors devours for one of the
> occupants...I find dead bodies.
>
> Am I doing something wrong, or do ottos just not last long? Any info
would
> be appreciated, especially before I go by more ottos :-)
>
>
> David