Has anyone experience with zebra otos? I would very much like to get some
of these in a few of months time.

My water is hard and alkaline (pH=8, GH=19) and at this stage I'm not
intending to attempt to lower that. The tank is 112 litre (about 29 US
gallon I believe) and contains:

2 x Cherry Barb
6 x White Cloud Minnows
5 x Pygmy corys
1 x Ancistrus

The ancistrus does a wonderful job of keeping algae down, but he's not a
permanent resident - he belongs to my father and will be moving to his new
tank once it's set up and matured a bit. I won't be getting the otos until
he's gone, to give them more of a food source. That will also give my tank
more time to mature (it's cycled, no nitrite or ammonia present, but still
new)

So are the zebra otos likely to thrive in this set-up? Or would they be
fussy about the pH, I've read that they prefer neutral to acidic but also
read that many fish will adapt. The fish I have certainly seem to be doing
very well so far. But they have all been purchased locally, I might have to
go further afield for the otos and the possible differences in water over
distance worries me.

I'm thinking that four would be a good number to have. Does that sound OK?
is it right that they are happier in groups?

Any info would be great, I'm very much a beginner and would like to try and
get things right!

Thanks

Lisa