Ok call me a heathen.....

[The Editor]

I've been thinking....

I plan on attempting to keep Otos (vittatus or vestitus, one of the small breeds) in a smallish tank with a brace of guppies and a snail. I'm right at the end of a fishless cycle and am gonna get some guppies first, maybe this weekend if all levels are good!

I plan on waiting a few months before bringing the Otos home, but have been doing a little reading aroung about how to keep them happy... It seems that keeping them well fed is a big problem, and malnutrition is often the cause of premature death.

Natural soft green algae is their prefered food, however they will often eat blanched vegetables etc or algae wafers.... Now here comes the ghetto idea

I live near a few streams and rivers... Providing the river/stream is clean and relatively fast flowing... is there any problem with me taking algae covered rocks home and placing them in the tank as a "natural treat" for the otos? I could take only from moorland streams where the water won't have come off of any agricultural land so there would be no fertilizer run off etc....

This is all gonna be months away if it ever happens so not a problem if its totally off limits....

In fact what is the deal with using natural water courses in conjunction with home aquariums in a more general sense? The conclusion I came to is that: Assuming the river/lake is clean and not poisened with agricultural fertilisers etc, then surely it'll be a great example of a stable and diverse ecosystem we could use to boost our tanks?

 

[mfdrookie516]

I've be a little wary of doing that. I got all my rocks out of a creek, but they dried first, then were scrubbed very good with a wire brush and rinsed with very hot water. I made sure nothing lived through it.

In your case, I think simply making algae covered rocks would be a better/easier idea. IMO, it wouldn't be hard to get a cheap 10g tank from walmart, put some rocks in it, stick it in front of a window, throw some fish food in, and wait for the algae to come.

 

[The Editor]

Yea I'm weary of it also... But why? What lives in clean streams that we don't want in our fresh water tanks?

I've not got a problem setting up a little algae tank to provide rocks for them... and probably will give them a rock every now and then...

By the time I'd finished my original post I had kinda got over the specific idea of taking rocks for otos, and had wanted a discussion about the use of natural resources!

Has(does) anyone ever just fill their tank with rocks and gravel from a river, then with river water etc?? If not why not??

Like I said I'm just after a discussion really

 

[Crepe]

Yea I'm weary of it also... But why? What lives in clean streams that we don't want in our fresh water tanks?

I've not got a problem setting up a little algae tank to provide rocks for them... and probably will give them a rock every now and then...

By the time I'd finished my original post I had kinda got over the specific idea of taking rocks for otos, and had wanted a discussion about the use of natural resources!

Has(does) anyone ever just fill their tank with rocks and gravel from a river, then with river water etc?? If not why not??

Like I said I'm just after a discussion really

Freshwater unlike seawater is often filled with parasites and other things you don't want in your tank. Especially algae covered rocks which provide good anchorage for things like flukes and parasitic worms.

 

[The Editor]

I see... So avoiding parasites and parasitic worms is a good thing...

So I guess that rules out placing things into a river... IE putting wood in a basket and anchoring then leaving for a few months to remove tannins...

Ok so salt water... Can we harvest from a marine environment into a fresh environment?

 

[Crepe]

I see... So avoiding parasites and parasitic worms is a good thing...

So I guess that rules out placing things into a river... IE putting wood in a basket and anchoring then leaving for a few months to remove tannins...

Ok so salt water... Can we harvest from a marine environment into a fresh environment?

That probably won't work. Things (plants especially) don't like going salt to fresh and vice versa. I'd just culture it at home in a bucket in a sunny place or buy good quality algae pellets. I don't feed my otos anymore. My tank has more than enough algae for them. They are all so fat they "waddle" around to swim.

 

[The Editor]

Osmotic shock causes bad things to happen then eh?

Fair enough! Yea I think I'll just set up a little tank or bucket in my window-sill at home and leave it to accumulate algae...

I think I'll always have to supplement their diet since they're going into a smallish tank with home made ghetto rigged lighting without the high output of propper aquarium lighting... So what brands of algae flakes are decent?

I've kept the metal ties from the bunches of plants I bought from my LFS to use as vegetable anchors, a tip suggested on a different oto forum.. But they look and feel like lead aren't heavy metals not hugely toxic to fish?