calling all you oto owners!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

severum mama

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Dec 11, 2004
Messages
10,296
Location
GA
Hey everyone! I just had a quick question about otos. I know they eat diatoms, but do they also eat hair algae? I have a major hair algae problem in my Eclipse hex and I think I want to get one or two (I hear they do better in pairs).

TIA and have a great day! :D
 
My otos don't really do a good job on hair algae, unfortunately. They're kind of picky....

I have 3 otos in a 10g and TONS of hair algae.....
 
:D IMO the best way to deal with the problem is to find the cause and treat it. It could as simple as too much light, or as complex as an abundance of one nutrient over another.
 
Absolutely the best way to handle it is to correct the cause, as Brian mentions, but I too have purchased algae eaters for my problems, lol.

SAE and Flag fish will eat hair algae, as will mollies (I prefer to keep them brackish, though) and rosy barbs. I think farlowella cats will also if you have a setup that is suitable for them.
 
I'll chime in here rather than starting a new thread: What kinds of Algea DO Otos eat? I'm considering getting 2 for both my 20 and 5, but if they don't eat the algea I have, it wouldn't be worth it.
 
Well, I'm sure I have too much light on the tank. It's a 5 gallon Eclipse with a 10W CF bulb. I can't go back to the incandescent bulb because I think it would be much too hot, so I can't really correct the problem of having too much light. Would it work to just have the bulb on for less time every day? Right now it is on for about 11 hours/day.

I have a farlowella in my 29 gallon but there is no way I could put him in a 5 gallon in good conscience. The lighting in that setup is too crappy to grow hair algae period. How ironic. :roll:
 
Psyhampster said:
I'll chime in here rather than starting a new thread: What kinds of Algea DO Otos eat? I'm considering getting 2 for both my 20 and 5, but if they don't eat the algea I have, it wouldn't be worth it.

Severum mentioned it at the beginning of the thread Hamp. Diatom (Brown Algae).
 
Otos are not good fish for hair algae. As a short term fix I would recommend getting an American-Flag Fish if you can find one. They are the best fish I have ever seen for eating hair algae. Here is a link to a web site that explains the different types of algae and possible remedies.

http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

For a long term solution I would look at your nutrient balance (this includes light). Reducing the amount of time that the light is on might help. I didn't see any mention if the tank has any plants in it but I would suggest getting some stemmed plants that get their nutrients direct from the water. Hygrophila and Anachris come to mind as possible candidates. You can also look at getting a mossball (aka Chladoflor). These are great at sucking up nutrients that would otherwise encourage algae growth.

I have a 5 gallon Eclipse Hex 5 with a 10W compact fluorescent bulb (on for 11 hours a day) and had algae problems in the past but now it stays pretty clean. It is planted with Cryptocoryne wendtii "green" and Hygrophila polysperma and I fertilize it with Flourish, Flourish Iron and Flourish Excel. There are some cherry barbs and rasboras in there now along with a few ramshorn snails.
 
I dont know what kind of plants I have in there other than the big java fern :oops: but they are all thriving even with all the algae. I don't use any fertilizers. LOL this was supposed to be my low maintenance tank! :lol: Ahhh, the irony. So would it be cruel and unusual punishment to keep a flagfish in there? My LFS has some so that would be a possibility, but it would seem to me like the tank is too small. The only fish in there now is a male betta, would they get along?
 
Here's a link about flagfish. It says that slow-moving fish and fish with long fins -- a betta -- should not be kept with the flagfish.

http://www.geocities.com/shtinkythefish/flagfish.htm

I have this Eclipse hex 5 tank also. I had a male betta in it, but he died a few weeks ago. I didn't like the 10 watt CF this tank came with. It was a bit bright for my liking, and I also thought it was too bright for the betta. Here's a light I got for this tank: http://www.bulbman.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4160
The betta seemed fine with this light, and he often laid in his java moss bed near the top of the tank, close to the light. He didn't do that very much with the 10 watt bulb. I had crypts and rotala in this tank also.
 
Back
Top Bottom