Mistakes I made ordering Otos from a wholesaler

[vince82]

[..] algae [..] u need a lot of it.

Yeah cause I have 10 of these suckers in my 60G

 

[vince82]

Two steps forward one step back.
I added the 10 otos to the main tank that before only had 5 corys, and have been overfeeding the tank for a few days to make it generate more diatom algae, now my nitrites are between 0.25 and 0.5.
And it's gonna take almost the whole day to the tiny RO thingy I have to make 30 gallons of water, wasn't planning for a water change today.

ooh boy

 

[Ichthys]

the 2 to 3 weeks of accidental fasting leads to them losing their gut bacteria, losing the ability to process food the way they used to and many of them starve and die off. It may not have be possible to save the ones you lost without first discovering the right probiotics and them cooperating and eating them.

This is the main problem with newly imported Otos. They need gut bacteria to be able to digest algae, and these gut bacteria are lost due to starvation. The quickest way to replenish these gut bacteria is to put the Otos into a tank with other herbivores. Herbivore poop contains small amounts of dislodged gut bacteria. Herbivores that have lost their gut bacteria eat this poop to replenish their own. Without replenishing their gut bacteria, even algae won’t save them because they can’t digest it.

 

[vince82]

One week later, the 10 that made it are still all good. NO2 and ammonia in the main tank went back to 0 (did a 40% water change and added bacteria too to play safe).
Saw early signs of ich on 3 of them, probably because of the small nitrite spike being debilitating, so I pumped the temperature up to 82F, kept it there 3 days, brought it back down, there are no more white spots on anything.
The tank (plastic container) I got for the breeding attempt is still not cycled (nitrates at .50), so nothing is happening there either.

But no news good news