I've heard that they are highly difficult to keep alive for the first few weeks. Never the less, while walking through one of the seedier pet stores (that I hadn't been in for 8 months) in my town in search of a price for a filter for another tank, I happened to walk right into their tanks (mainly to play "Guess what disease the fish here have this week") and noticed that almost all of their tanks were looking up to par. One tank in particular was home to 5 otos.
I grabbed the three chubbiest and most active otos of the group (one was severely fin-nipped and gasping at the surface, and another was laying on the gravel, just kinda chilling and staring at people, but not moving around much). Only ended up paying $1.67 for the three, because the cashier messed up and I wasn't going to correct her. I'll attempt to grab some pictures of them in the morning. Two of them have been active at the front of the glass, cleaning up the "gunk" buildup on the glass. #3 disappeared into the mass of silk/plastic plants in the tank. I dropped in the usual algae pellets + 1 extra because my corys and molly demolish them, and 3 would ensure that some was around in case the otos wanted a share.
I plan to drop in a slice of zuchinni or something tomorrow in hopes of coaxing them out of hiding.
In case it matters, the tank is filtered with an AquaClear Mini (cycling), and an Aquatech 5-15 (cycled). The tank also houses:
1 dalmation molly
5 neon tetra
1 dwarf gourami
7 panda corydora
What can I do to encourage their survival?
Should I increase the number I have?
As they'll eventually eat the 12 month algae buildup in my tank, and I know algae isn't the only thing they should be eating, what should they be fed?. (I have some Wardley Algae pellets and a high-quality shrimp pellet on hand).
What's the adult-size of them? (they're currently about 1.5-2" long each as they're the same size as my corys (and difficult to spot when the corys are near them.!)
I grabbed the three chubbiest and most active otos of the group (one was severely fin-nipped and gasping at the surface, and another was laying on the gravel, just kinda chilling and staring at people, but not moving around much). Only ended up paying $1.67 for the three, because the cashier messed up and I wasn't going to correct her. I'll attempt to grab some pictures of them in the morning. Two of them have been active at the front of the glass, cleaning up the "gunk" buildup on the glass. #3 disappeared into the mass of silk/plastic plants in the tank. I dropped in the usual algae pellets + 1 extra because my corys and molly demolish them, and 3 would ensure that some was around in case the otos wanted a share.
I plan to drop in a slice of zuchinni or something tomorrow in hopes of coaxing them out of hiding.
In case it matters, the tank is filtered with an AquaClear Mini (cycling), and an Aquatech 5-15 (cycled). The tank also houses:
1 dalmation molly
5 neon tetra
1 dwarf gourami
7 panda corydora
What can I do to encourage their survival?
Should I increase the number I have?
As they'll eventually eat the 12 month algae buildup in my tank, and I know algae isn't the only thing they should be eating, what should they be fed?. (I have some Wardley Algae pellets and a high-quality shrimp pellet on hand).
What's the adult-size of them? (they're currently about 1.5-2" long each as they're the same size as my corys (and difficult to spot when the corys are near them.!)
