Very odd Oto Death :(

[Rich T]

Ive had two ottos in my tank for almost 3 months and they've never shown any sign of illness until today.

The largest fully grown Oto within the space of an hour went from perfectly fine swimming about happily eating algae from the rocks/plant to being stiff as a board and unable to swim

The oto suddenly became unable to control one side of its body and lay on the gravel bed attempting to swim but not really being able to.

When I came back later to see how the poor chap was doing he was lying face first tail up and had stopped breathing


The only recent change ive made to the tank is adding a large piece of wood with plants growing out of it. The wood had previously been in the lfs display tanks and all the fish in that tank seemed fine

I guess the poor fella died of shock unless anyone else has any other ideas ?

Ive brought forward the water change and swapped out 25% of the water even though conditions were still good

Always a shame to loose a fish, this is the first one ive lost for a long time

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What temp is the tank at and do you have any recent ammonia, nitrate and nitrite stats at hand you can post us?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

do you know what type of plants are on the driftwood?

 

[Rich T]

More bad news im afraid, the second Oto has died in exactly the same way


These are the results from tests ive just carried out

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
Nitrite 0ppm

Tank Temperature is 26 degrees / 78 farenheit

Filtration is curtosey of a Fluval 2 Plus underwater filter with two foam pads, a polyester filter Pad and I think theres also the old sponge filter medium from my previous tank aswell. The filter is pumping at its max pressure and has a venturi effect system built in to airate the water... never hurts to over filter as they say

Tank is cycled

Im not sure what the plants are on the wood , they werent labeled but I will try and attach a picture. The only other live plant is a "Cryptocoryne Wendtii" at the moment but I have "Elodea Densa" "Amazon Swords" "Red Vallis" and "Java Moss" on order from someone on ebay


Heres the plants in question along with one of my Opaline Gourami

 

[abstract]

Im not sure what the plants are on the wood

looks like anubias v. nana or coffefolia to me...unfortunately i dont have any suggestions at this point - are the other fish in the tank OK?

 

[Rich T]

Yep perfectly fine, swimming around as active as ever. Infact the Corys seem a lot happier now that the Oto's are gone

Just had a look round google at Anubias nana and I think your right

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If the oto could not maintain balance in the water/stay upright it most likely had a swimbladder disorder, which after ruling out water quality issues, they are most commanly caused by internal bacteria infection.
If you live in the UK you should be able to get hold of a realy good med called "anti internal bacteria" by Interpet which will sort this out.

 

[Rich T]

Swim bladder disorder was my first impression but just from the way they were acting i.e. totally unable to control fins on one side of their body it doesnt seem to fit.

I have had fish with a swim bladder problem before (A long time ago in a different tank) and this looks nothing like that.

As I said earlier the fishes went from their normal selves to being literally paralised down one side before giving up totally all within about an hour of the symptoms first showing

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Oto's aern't the hardiest of fish out there and like panda corys, will often die for no reason at all- im realy stumped as to what could have killed your otos, but there seems to be quite a few other people having unexplained oto deaths though and i think this may just be somthing you have to handle when you buy them.
Are you positive the otos wern't showing any other physical symtoms other than eing paralyzed down one side of their body- no red/inflamed gills, rapid breathing, lethargy, cottony/white/grey/fluffy or hairy growths on them or open sores, white spots or dust like covering on them or unusual swelling or inflamed/red anus's etc etc?

 

[Rich T]

No sores, no fungal growths,no white spot etc.. they were gasping for breath just prior to them eventually giving up but prior to this absoloutely nothing seemed to be wrong with them

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would increase the flow of the filter in your tank to give it more oxgen and do a small water change and clean the gravel/sand in your tank just to make sure there is enough oxygen in the water and that there is no ammonia lurking in the depths of the tank as ammonia is always more concentrated at the bottom of the tank.