Oto Emergency!...omg Super Worried

[ramzer]

today i bought 2 otos and a german blue ram...i place all three in my QT with a heater, algae filled rock and filter with mature media from main filter...now after 4 hrs, 1 of my oto looks like its not gonna make it through the night....it is swimming up to the surface for air...then it will suddenly stop moving and sink down vertically and will start swimming about frantically and repeating the whole process...the other oto however is clinging to the rock for the algae...the ram is also doing good...i also added some blackwater extract...ammonmia: 0 nitite: 0 nitrate: o

 

[ramzer]

ok..nvm...its dead,heading down to my lfs 2moro to get more as they do well in groups ...questions are: 1) to quarrentine or not
2) how to properly acclimatse them.
3) how to maximise chances of survival
4) can add blackwater extract together with platys,cories,ram and plec

thanks

 

[Shrimper]

Sorry to hear it died... Otos can be very sensitive fish, you did the right thing by using a quarrentine tank.

They aren't a fish i've kept so i'm unsure about the blackwater extract or other ways to maximise their chances of survival but from what i've read about buying them to have the best chance of them surviving only buy them if they have nice rounded bellys, if they look skinny it probably means they aren't too healthy and you could have problems acclimatising them.

There is a guide for acclimatising sensitive shrimp on ukshrimp (here) The guide is designed for shrimp that have been shipped a long distance but will apply to any sensitive fish as well. You can cut the time down to an hour or so as they are from an LFS so wont of been in transit very long.

 

[Scotty001]

ottos are notoriuos for being very very sensative to new conditions and there is a high rate of deaths with ottos within a few weeks of putting them in you tank, wether this is due to hange in water conditionsto what they are used too im not too sure, but it couldnt do any harm to try and match your water conditions as closley as poss to the water f the lfs your buying them from.

when buying ottos i would o for about 5 or 6 and the FATTEST ones you can, a fat otto is a happy otto and indicates that it is eatin well, when you et them don just say to the lfs ill take a few of those and let them pick them out, pont out individual ones to make sure you get the best stock you can see, it can be a little hard for the lfs to do this if they hae many fish but most skinny but at the end of the day its your money and who wants to buy somethin tha may not survive. !!! where and otto fat you know its been eating well since they have had it and helps a little with the stress of transport and tank change.

 

[RadaR]

How did you get 0 nitrate?

 

[ramzer]

How did you get 0 nitrate?

because in my QT i used dechlorinated tap water...so there arent any poo or watever yet...lol

 

[RadaR]

Nitrate is present in tap water by the way...
That's some damn clean water if there is 0 nitrate in your tap water. Good for breeding.

 

[Corleone]

Nitrate is present in tap water by the way...
That's some damn clean water if there is 0 nitrate in your tap water. Good for breeding.

Not everywhere. There's none in mine, and there's a very strict legal limit on how much can be present here (though we're allowed to drink up to ridiculous amounts of ammonia, mercury, and dioxin from our tapwater, thankfully mine has none).

I had a tough time with otos. They're also fairly skittish eaters, IME, and won't eat around larger or more active fish, which becomes a serious pain if you also have livebearers who will peck at lettuce, zucchini, or algae wafers. I slowly lost mine over the months until eventually I stopped limiting myself from getting fish that might eat them, and eventually my angelfish got the last two.