Sooooo stoked about my first Oto fry! Just want to show them off :)

I got my first 6 Otos two months ago. I had recently put all the inhabitants of my 20g into my newly re-scaped 55g, so I used the 20g as a quarantine tank for the Otos. After a few weeks, as I was about to move them into the 55g as well, I suddenly saw something tiny moving in the water. So I only moved 3 Otos in the 55g and left 3 with the fry (I don't know, just seemed to make sense at the time). Then every day, I kept seeing more fry until I was up to 11. I have no idea how I got so lucky. The 20g is well planted and definitely had some algae on the plants and the wood, so maybe that was it. I was worried about what the fry would eat so I started just putting very small amount of spirulina powder in the tank. They were so tiny but I think I saw them eat it. Then I moved on to Hikari Frist Bites. I already "raise" baby brine shrimp for my platy fry so they now get that as well.

My favorite part is that they are now no longer afraid of me. I rarely see the (wild caught) adults. And at first, the fry avoided me. But now they are used to getting good stuff when my fingers are in the tank, so now actually swim up to me and around my hand. I hope this won't change as they grow Anyway just wanted to show off my baby Otos!

I'm so confused!! Those aren't otocinclus fry in the pic... that's some kind of tetra or rainbowfish perhaps? But the shape is completely wrong for otocinclus. Accidentally uploaded the wrong pic perhaps? @Slaphppy7 ? @Byron ?

I think you may have gotten some blue eye eggs accidentally transferred to your tank with your new otos.... these look a lot like red neon (pseudomugli luminatus) fry. Accidental transfers like that do happen! Was great to have so many though, and so many survive!

Hmmmm....well, that would be odd. The Otos were the only fish in the tank. The tank was empty before that for about a month. So if any of my previous fish had fry it would have been almost 2 months before I saw them. Is that possible? Here I am pleased as punch that I have Oto fry and then they turn out to not be Oto fry at all? Hahahahaha! Sums up my life

hazyvonne said:

Hmmmm....well, that would be odd. The Otos were the only fish in the tank. The tank was empty before that for about a month. So if any of my previous fish had fry it would have been almost 2 months before I saw them. Is that possible? Here I am pleased as punch that I have Oto fry and then they turn out to not be Oto fry at all? Hahahahaha! Sums up my life

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Did you get any new plants at the same time? Any moss or similar added to the bag with the otos? That's often how fry wind up transferred to someone's home tank, when the other fish spawn or give birth in the store tanks (guppies a common "freebie" fish to find a fry in with your new bagged fish).

If not, then it's still possible that the eggs or very tiny fry were in the water itself, and accidentally bagged and bought home with your otos! It happens.

I'm not sure what fish yours are, I only know that they're not otos because the shape of the body, and swimming in the open at the surface isn't right for otocinclus. The eyes sort of look blue in those pics, and since I only recently got some pseudomugli luminatus myself, which have bright blue eyes, that's what comes to mind for me, but there are a variety of fish they could be!
Whatever they are though, you've done really well in raising them! And someone here will know what they are I'm sure, even if they need a little more time to mature to be absolutely sure.

Yeah, those are really cute, but they definitely aren't ottos. Congratulations on some new fish, whatever they are!

Pic of the adults?

WhistlingBadger said:

Yeah, those are really cute, but they definitely aren't ottos. Congratulations on some new fish, whatever they are!

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I was going to tag you next! lol. Because I know you keep rice fish as well as your general experience, figured you might have an ID!
They couldn't be killifish, could they? I wanna know what these fish are! lol, mystery fish are always fun. @Colin_T @GaryE any ideas for ID?

Danio?

Thank you, everyone, for chipping in here - and thanks for not laughing at me too hard Yes, I did buy some new plants and moss at the same time. I generally worry about snails not fry though! Since there are some assassin snails in that tank, I didn't bleach dip the plants this time, thinking any stowaway snail would be welcome to the Assassins. Guess I got fry instead. I googled around a bit, and pseudomugils seems like a very good guess. I actually thought about getting those a while ago so...I'll just call it serendipity. I'll update you guys/gals in a few weeks when they are bigger. Not gonna lie, I'm a bit disappointed they're not Otos - I was happy to have more of them, but a surprise fish (well 11 of them) is absolutely awesome as well!

hazyvonne said:

Thank you, everyone, for chipping in here - and thanks for not laughing at me too hard

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Why should anyone laugh at you? When you only have one kind of adult fish in the tank, it's natural to assume that any fry appearing came from them!
I'm sorry that they're not otos, since you were hoping for those, but don't give up on those yet! People have bred them in captivity, no reason why you shouldn't be able to as well! There are some good videos on youtube where people have bred them.

hazyvonne said:

Yes, I did buy some new plants and moss at the same time. I generally worry about snails not fry though! Since there are some assassin snails in that tank, I didn't bleach dip the plants this time, thinking any stowaway snail would be welcome to the Assassins. Guess I got fry instead.

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It's great that you didn't bleach dip the plants, or these guys wouldn't have made it! A lot of fish like to use moss for spawning, and it's perfect for hiding teeny eggs inside, so that's most likely where the fry came from. You fed tiny food like they needed as well.

hazyvonne said:

I googled around a bit, and pseudomugils seems like a very good guess. I actually thought about getting those a while ago so...I'll just call it serendipity.

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The pseudo's is just a guess that I'm biased towards because I already have them, so that's where my mind went, but very possible that they are, so I hope they are, if that's the ones you thought about getting before. If you can get more more photos of them, like the dorsal fin looks as though it might be curved, based on the one that's top centre in the above pic? Then the better the chances someone who knows more can give an accurate ID.

hazyvonne said:

I'll update you guys/gals in a few weeks when they are bigger.

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hazyvonne said:

but a surprise fish (well 11 of them) is absolutely awesome as well!

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Please do update with progress photos as they mature! I'm trying to get my first pseudo's into spawning condition hoping to raise fry myself, so I'd really love to see how they grow, and so we can see a definite ID!

I've got a positive ID for you*

*They're positively not otos

Slaphppy7 said:

I've got a positive ID for you*

*They're positively not otos

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Behave yourself, you big tease! Before I call the mods on you! *sternly wags finger*

Wait....

Pseudomugil rainbowfish and their eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch so they might have come in on some plants. They are nicer fish than Otocinclus catfish and probably worth more. Plus you can breed them and sell them and then buy some real Otocinclus if you want some.

The following link has all the known rainbowfishes from Australia and New Guinea. Have a look in the Pseudomugil section and see if they match up to anything.