Otocinclus Affinis

[Zenn]

I recently managed to get my hands on a fish i have been after for so long. Otocinclus. Yaay and when i saw them i bought the whole lot in the store, they only had 5, or else i would of bought more.

Now this is my question, i have one otocinclus that persues some of the others, and when i say follows he is continueously swimming into them, under them and so forth and i am wondering, this isnt some courting tatic or anything, as the others seem not to do this to one another, just this one Otocinclus that does it, any experienced otocinclus fish keepers would be greatly helpful here. ^^

thanks

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

If you look at my link below, you can read about our otto spawning diary. You'll also find pics enabling you to sex your otto's. With a group of 5, it could be possible it's a male attempting to spawn with females.

Got any pics of your cute little guys?

 

[Zenn]

I will try to get some, but the tiny little buggers are always darting around the tank, timmy an jimmy who are the two largest ones have settled down and you can always tell where they are, but the three tiny ones are swimming against the flow of the filter, or rolling over in the bubbles of the air stone, or just darting all over the tank, it is so adorable to watch ^^

 

[Zenn]

and here are some pictures of the little ones

Jimmy (though to be renamed) Is the largest and the calmest, aint scare of nothing or no one, just goes about the business as usual

This is timmy second largest and again peaceful and collected, does run away and hide, and doesnt go flinting around the tank like a headless chicken like the others

Now this is the only picture i managed to catch of Fimme, got her to stay still for at leaast 1 second, before she went off chasing with the other two

She likes to dart up, go to the filter, go down the back, circle around and do the same thing with Gimme and Vimme directly behind her, and if she gets caught she swims into the flow of the filter, get blown across the tank through the bubbles rolling over as she goes, and then dart back and starts the chase over again... It is the most adorable thing to watch i am trying to see if i can get it on video...

I have been after these fish for a long time and now i fully understand why they can be such a addiction to fish keepers, they are the most interesting fish i have ever kept and ive been doing this for over 6 years now, I am one hell of a PROUD oto keeper.

Oh one last pic this is there home, as you can see LOT's of hiding places so sometimes hard to find all of them, only the angel and redtail black shark are easy to find

and this is Angy LOVES to pose, and whenever i want to check up on the oto's he loves to swim and block my views, thinking he is so beautiful why would i be interested in anything else

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Nice pics. Lovely looking fish. It's hard to tell the sex, but I'm sure you'll be able to tell looking at them, they're a bit small in the pics. They are hard to photograph, I normally take loads and only get one or two good ones.

The angel is really cute too. Won't have many baby otto's with that nutter in the tank though. We had 2 when our otto's were spawning and the angels loved snacking on the fry. The only one's to survive were the eggs I collected during spawning.

They are a wonderful addition to one's tank. We love ours and they do their job well.

 

[Zenn]

Oh my little family are doing well on their duty too, getting worried they almost cleaned the entire 3ft tank amoung themselves, and their colour and size has improved since i bought them, and thats was only about a week ago, they were faded and pretty see through, due to stress and such but now they are bursting with colour... just so you know i took loads of photos and those were the best i could get, as i said getting them to sit still is a pain, it aint just small flickers around the tank like normal algea eaters they are darting and swimming all the time, and getting a photo of them is like try to catch a photo and of fly in a swarm of aeroplanes, its nearly impossible to catch them still and alone. XD

I aint too worried about fry at the moment, if i see them i will net them out and put them into my breeding tank but otherwise, i try to let it go its course, and plus going on the size of the oto's and the size of the angel there are plenty of places they can go and i can feed them that the angel cant dream of getting into, he is too big, a nice full size healthy angel, he will end up hurting himself going some the places my oto's do, even my red tail doesnt bother going into the oto home XD