Ok, Decided to go with Otos but....

[eah]

I will often just take some driftwood or rocks (that have algae growing on them) from an established tank and drop it in the QT tank. That way you have some established algae and don't have to worry about trying to harvest it.

[Karackle]

Well, 2 of the 3 Otos I added to my 5g planted Betta tank are fat and happy and doing well, they've cleaned all my crypts of any algae and cleaned the glass quite well, and they eat algae wafers! I've been putting in ~1/4 of the small (about dime sized) wafers, and they eat them! The wafers disappear and I've seen the otos picking at them, so i assume it's the Otos not the Betta eating the wafers The third Oto is AWOL. I couldn't scare him out of hiding when doing a PWC yesterday, but i didn't find a body either. So he may or may not be hiding somewhere, but my hopes are not high, he was the smallest by a good deal. But i'm so glad the other 2 are doing well, i've tried otos before without much luck, so thank you everyone who gave me advice! I think it really helped!

[neilanh]

he's probably still in there. They're great at hiding. I had 1 go for 3 weeks unseen, then one afternoon I found him playing with the others. lol

[marchmaxima]

Subscribed... I'm seriously thinking about putting a few otos in my tank too... I'm interested in how you go Karackle. Keep this one updated!

Good luck with finding the little guy.

[Karackle]

Hahaha true, they are definitely good at hiding, i've rarely been able to find all 3 at the same time, I just know that the 2 i've been seeing are the same 2 as the other one is significantlly smaller, but that aslo means he's got a lot more places to hide! So we'll see what happens, and I'll definitely keep this thread updated. And feel free to ask any questions, though I don't promise I'll be able to answer them, but i'll certainly try, or at least relate my own experiences.

[Karackle]

Well, I went away for the weekend, and when I came home the algae wafers i'd added were all gone and everyone seems fine. The Betta was looking a little funny when i first turned the lights on, but he seemed ok a few minutes later, so i'll be keeping a close eye on him. 2 of the otos were out and about swimming around and looking nice and happy and chubby. I could definitely be wrong about this, but it seems like the 2 i saw today were different than the 2 i was seeing the other day, it LOOKS to me like it's the smallest and largest one, whereas on friday I was seeing the large and medium. Still haven't seen all 3 at once in a while though, so it could syill be that there's only 2 left. But like i said, 2 is better han none!

[tomherndon]

Locating Otos:

I'm fairly new at this, but I've found my otos really like a shaded vertical space. I used two stone beams (about 8 inches long and an 1 inch girth) and gravel to hold up a small piece of thin slate (6 x 8 rectangle) as a shade casting wall. (think stone lean to).

Most mornings and evenings when I do a head count - three or four of my four oto's are on the shady side of the lean to, hanging vertically. Very reliable roost for the babies when the lights are on. And knowing how many are on the wall makes tracking any missing oto without double counting one fairly easy.

[Karackle]

Cool thanks! It's definitely possible that at least one of the little guys is hiding under the arch in the driftwood...I'm currently soaking some other wood I found to add some more hardscape, so maybe that will help with the locating! Thanks for the tip

[Karackle]

So I was at the fish store last night to buy a few tetras for my 20 gallon, and the Otos looked fat and healthy, I almost purchased 2 more but I wanted to drip-acclimate the tetras to the 20 gallon and I DEFINITELY want to SLOWLY drip acclimate the Otos if I get them, and I knew I would be home late (MANY errands to run and last time I dripped water so slowly that they were acclimating for 4+ hours ) and i only have so many buckets and airline tubing for drip acclimating anyway, so I didn't get them last night.

The question is would it even be a good idea to get one or two more chubby, happy, healthy looking Otos? Thoughts? Or would 3-4 Otos + 1 Betta be too much bioload for my 5 gallon? Keeping it mind it is heavily planted with some FAST growing stems (cabomba and wisteria)...and crypts that like to shoot out new leaves quite frequently too. Thanks!

[neilanh]

I think that would be too many otos for a 5 gallon, based on their diets I don't think you'd have enough for them to eat of the natural stuff they love so much.