Ottos

[lovemybarbs]

Would they be safe with my various barbs and my pictus? I have diatoms and I read they will eat them. My two shrimp can't keep up and my pleco doesn't seem to eat them.

I've heard they are very sensitive. Should I bother?

 

[JDogg]

do you have live plants? they are essential IMO for sucess with otos in the long run.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I just started buying them actually. I have some ferns.

 

[JDogg]

I just started buying them actually. I have some ferns.

is the tank fairly new? the diatoms will probably go away in time, i do not like to recommend any fish as a "quick fix", but yes i think otos should be ok in your tank, as long as the barbs do not harass them...

 

[lovemybarbs]

My tank is three years old, but I moved in January and didn't lose my cycle. They come and they go. It is definitely brown, so that is my guess.

I keep the glass clean by scraping it every week. I have a mix of artificial and real plants. I just don't like it because it makes my clean tank look dirty on my plants.

Does it matter how close my plants are to the heater? It seems I read somewhere that that will start them up.

I had ottos when I was a kid and they are really neat once they get fairly big.

 

[bwaymusgal]

I have four otos in with my pictus, serpae tetras, gouramis, and GBR for a month or so now and I've never had a problem. I put them in to take care of some algae... and they did it overnight! It was crazy.

They are usually the broad leaves of the plants or on the driftwood, while the pictus usually roams along the bottom or stays in his cave.

 

[lovemybarbs]

My pictus is probably five inches long. I tested out some small zebra danios a few weeks ago and they didn't last a day. Whoops.

Okay, I've seen yellow ones and gray ones. Which ones are tougher? Does one get bigger than the other. Yellow would be cool with my black background.

Do they hide all day?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Otos will be just fine with your fish. I don't see any problems. Just be sure you occasionally give then an algae wafer. And when buying them, make the LFS get you only the fattest ones. Fat means healthy. If they are not fat, could mean problems to come.

 

[rkilling1]

I had ottos when I was a kid and they are really neat once they get fairly big.

just wondering, are you sure you had oto's when you where young? oto's only grow to like 1 1/2 to 2" max. maybe you had CAE's?

 

[lovemybarbs]

To be honest, I'm not sure. He was gray and got fairly fat, but I can't exactly remember.

 

[Mosaic]

Additionally, I'm pretty sure otos only come in a wild color variety. There's no yellow form.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I saw an entire tank of yellow algae eaters at my LFS. I guess they were CAEs. But they look alike, yes?