Who Dun It?

Ray Martini wrote:
Elaine:

I have had the worst luck with Ottos. The first two I got for my daughters
10 gallon lasted about 3 months and died off. I replaced them and the new
ones didn't even last 3 weeks. I really like the Ottos too. Great workers
and peaceful. Could it be crappy Petco stock?

Otocinclus are usually wild-caught and often have flukes and internal
parasites. Shipping stresses them badly, and they do die off. It's not
even worth buying otos that the store hasn't had for at least two or
three weeks. Your three week die-off fish were probably brand new
imports with some sort of silent infection. By three months the ones
left of what I purchase are usually OK, so I'm surprised about your
first batch. I do find that they require algae wafers if the grazing is
light in the tank, and they can get thin pretty quickly. They're also
extremely sensitive to water conditions, so if anything went wrong in
the 10g, they'd be one of the first to die.

As for PetCo, they're getting the same wild-caught fish as everone else.
What I don't know is whether they use a cheaper importer who doesn't
disease treat. The most obvious problem I've seen with their Otos is
that PetCo doesn't always feed cucumber or algae wafers so the fish
remain stressed and hungry. I recently saw a tank full of Otos at some
chain where I went to grab some AmQuel trying to eat slime off of
gouramis because the tank was absolutely devoid of algae or vegetables.
I'd never seen the "attack oto" behavior before. Also, if there's a
batch that are obviously infected with parasites of any sort, PetCo and
other chains won't bother to treat them (they usually don't know how!).

I've always bought otos from LFS, and I only lose maybe 1 of 6 within
the first couple of weeks. Maybe try buying from a LFS, and only fat,
healthy looking otos that the store has had for at least 2 weeks -
that's what I do and it's worked so far.

--
Elaine T __
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