Otocinclus Feeding

[RustedKnight]

We tried peeled peas, and they aren't interested in them, and we want to give them some fresh food with their sinking algae pellets.

Would it be be because we aren't crushing the peas??

Other than that, could someone suggest another vegetable they might be interested in, and how to prepare and serve, as it were.

Many thanks in advance, Rusty and Helen.

 

[ZoddyZod]

We tried peeled peas, and they aren't interested in them, and we want to give them some fresh food with their sinking algae pellets.

Would it be be because we aren't crushing the peas??

Other than that, could someone suggest another vegetable they might be interested in, and how to prepare and serve, as it were.

Many thanks in advance, Rusty and Helen.

yep, try crusing the peas. Even pea halves may be too big for them to be interested in.

 

[RustedKnight]

We tried peeled peas, and they aren't interested in them, and we want to give them some fresh food with their sinking algae pellets.

Would it be be because we aren't crushing the peas??

Other than that, could someone suggest another vegetable they might be interested in, and how to prepare and serve, as it were.

Many thanks in advance, Rusty and Helen.

yep, try crusing the peas. Even pea halves may be too big for them to be interested in.

Brilliant, will inform the missus to try at next feeding.

Many thanks.

 

[Nick16]

you want soft foods, like cucumber, corgette (zuccini) or apple.

cucumber is a favourite as the middle is nice and mushy. you need to work out where they spend most of their time in the evenings/nights and place accordingly. in my tank they used to hand around a piece of wood so i used to attach the cucumber to that. they dont like to have to go down to the tank floor for it as much.

ottos need fairly large tanks imo, as they need the surface area to feed. they loved my 4x2x2 as there was plenty of plants and glass to feed off. amazon swords and crypts are a favourite as they have large leaves.

 

[RustedKnight]

you want soft foods, like cucumber, corgette (zuccini) or apple.

cucumber is a favourite as the middle is nice and mushy. you need to work out where they spend most of their time in the evenings/nights and place accordingly. in my tank they used to hand around a piece of wood so i used to attach the cucumber to that. they dont like to have to go down to the tank floor for it as much.

ottos need fairly large tanks imo, as they need the surface area to feed. they loved my 4x2x2 as there was plenty of plants and glass to feed off. amazon swords and crypts are a favourite as they have large leaves.

Well her tank is only 60 litres, but there's a large amount of watersprite which apparently also feeds off off algae, so I presume there isn't much in the way of natural algae, hence feeding the algae pellets.

Also our Oto's are always near to the floor, is this odd? They don't seem lethargic, just always suckered to the glass quite low down.

Apple is an interesting one.. got plenty of those, will try that. Thanks.

 

[Mo1959]

I have 3 otos too. They cleaned algae from my tank very quickly so I am now in the same position of trying to find things they like. They are little eating machines. lol. At the moment the three of them are all on a slice of courgette. I got a couple of these little clips with suckers on them and attach them to the side of the tank. I am not very sure if they touch the algae wafers or not as they don't seem to go to the bottom of my tank all that much. I wondered if there was some kind of algae tab you can get that you can stick to the glass for them. Perhaps someone else will know?

 

[RustedKnight]

I have 3 otos too. They cleaned algae from my tank very quickly so I am now in the same position of trying to find things they like. They are little eating machines. lol. At the moment the three of them are all on a slice of courgette. I got a couple of these little clips with suckers on them and attach them to the side of the tank. I am not very sure if they touch the algae wafers or not as they don't seem to go to the bottom of my tank all that much. I wondered if there was some kind of algae tab you can get that you can stick to the glass for them. Perhaps someone else will know?

Ours seem quite happy sitting atop a pellet (the pellets are large, we have to break them in half) and munching on them for a little while.
But i've seen people sticking what we buy to the side of the tank (I presume just with brute force and luck)

And from what I hear, a fat oto is a happy oto.

 

[mbsqw1d]

yep my ottos stripped my tank of algae within days and never see them at the bottom eating scraps or anything so i got to thinkin how to feed them. i went to the trouble of blanching a slice of cougette and threading some cotton through it.. hanging it down the glass where they tend to hang around. seemed to work!

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Sometimes it takes them a while to get going but my snails and pleco love honeydew melon and courgette.

 

[Bazza57]

I've just this minute dropped a chunk of cucumber in my tank for my oto's & BN's.
I peel the cucumber then stick a plant weight through the middle to keep it from floating around - both species love it. a 2" chunk devoured in 2 days
I hav'nt tried apple, melon or aubergine (zuccini) yet but all sound good, should I peel & blanche them first?

 

[Bazza57]

I've just this minute dropped a chunk of cucumber in my tank for my oto's & BN's.
I peel the cucumber then stick a plant weight through the middle to keep it from floating around - both species love it. a 2" chunk devoured in 2 days
I hav'nt tried apple, melon or aubergine (zuccini) yet but all sound good, should I peel & blanche them first?

Added cucumber yesterday, today water is all cloudy, looks a bit messy, but hope fish/filters will take care of this within 24 hrs.
First time this has happened to me - hasn't done this before, Dwarf gouramis have ragged it all about, test readings are fine, just fish with messy table manners maybe?